About the Authors

Andreas Nellen

Affiliation Medical Department III, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany

Daniel Heinrichs

Affiliation Medical Department III, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany

Marie-Luise Berres

Affiliation Medical Department III, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany

Hacer Sahin

Affiliation Medical Department III, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany

Petra Schmitz

Affiliation Medical Department III, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany

Amanda E. Proudfoot

Affiliation Merck Serono, Geneva Research Centre, Geneva, Switzerland

Christian Trautwein

Affiliation Medical Department III, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany

Hermann E. Wasmuth

hwasmuth@ukaachen.de

Affiliation Medical Department III, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany

Competing Interests

AEP is an employee of Merck Serono. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AN CT HEW. Performed the experiments: AN DH MLB HS PS. Analyzed the data: AN AEP HEW. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AEP. Wrote the paper: AN HEW.