About the Authors

Mona Saffarzadeh

Affiliation School of Medicine, Institute of Biochemistry, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

Christiane Juenemann

Affiliation School of Medicine, Institute of Biochemistry, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

Markus A. Queisser

Affiliations School of Medicine, Institute of Biochemistry, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

Guenter Lochnit

Affiliation School of Medicine, Institute of Biochemistry, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

Guillermo Barreto

Affiliation Max-Planck-Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany

Sebastian P. Galuska

Affiliation School of Medicine, Institute of Biochemistry, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

Juergen Lohmeyer

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine II, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

Klaus T. Preissner

klaus.t.preissner@biochemie.med.uni-giessen.de

Affiliation School of Medicine, Institute of Biochemistry, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MS CJ MAQ KTP. Performed the experiments: MS. Analyzed the data: MS CJ MAQ GL KTP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GB SPG JL. Wrote the paper: MS KTP. Contributed to the experimental designs and data interpretation: CJ MAQ. Performed agarose gel electrophoresis: CJ. Contributed to BAL activity measurements: MAQ. Performed and analyzed 2-D gel electrophoreses and proteomics: GL. Providing MLE-12 and AT-II cells: GB. Providing polysialic acid: SPG. Contributed to the design and performance of animal experiments: JL. Principal investigator, main contributor in designing and writing the manuscript: KTP.