About the Authors

Matilda H.-C. Sheng

MSheng@llu.edu

Affiliations Regenerative Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America, Musculoskeletal Disease Center, Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans' Affair Medical Center, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

Jon E. Wergedal

Affiliation Musculoskeletal Disease Center, Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans' Affair Medical Center, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

Subburaman Mohan

Affiliation Musculoskeletal Disease Center, Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans' Affair Medical Center, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

Mehran Amoui

Affiliation Musculoskeletal Disease Center, Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans' Affair Medical Center, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

David J. Baylink

Affiliation Regenerative Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

K.-H. William Lau

Affiliations Regenerative Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America, Musculoskeletal Disease Center, Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans' Affair Medical Center, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MS KL JW SM. Performed the experiments: MS MA. Analyzed the data: MS KL JW SM DB. Wrote the paper: MS KL.