About the Authors

Sandra A. Acosta

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Naoki Tajiri

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Kazutaka Shinozuka

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Hiroto Ishikawa

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Paul R. Sanberg

Affiliations Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America, Office of Research and Innovation, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Juan Sanchez-Ramos

Affiliations James Haley Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Tampa, Florida, United States of America, Department of Neurology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America, Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Shijie Song

Affiliations James Haley Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Tampa, Florida, United States of America, Department of Neurology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America, Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Yuji Kaneko

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Cesar V. Borlongan

cborlong@health.usf.edu

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: CVB and PRS serve as consultant and founder, respectively, of Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc. CVB is supported by National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke 1R01NS071956-01, Department of Defense W81XWH-11-1-0634, James and Esther King Foundation for Biomedical Research Program, SanBio Inc., KMPHC and NeuralStem Inc. CVB is a PLOS ONE Editorial Board member. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. In addition, the opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the US government.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CVB. Performed the experiments: CVB SAA NT HI KS SS. Analyzed the data: CVB SAA. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CVB SAA NT HI KS PRS JSR SS YK. Wrote the paper: CVB SAA NT JSR.