About the Authors

Fu-Min Xue

Contributed equally to this work with: Fu-Min Xue, Huan-Ping Zhang

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

Huan-Ping Zhang

Contributed equally to this work with: Fu-Min Xue, Huan-Ping Zhang

Affiliation Department of Pathology & Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Hui-Jie Hao

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

Zhao-Yang Shi

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

Chuan Zhou

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

Baisui Feng

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

Ping-Chang Yang

yangp@mcmaster.ca

Affiliation Department of Pathology & Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: BSF PCY. Performed the experiments: FMX HPZ HJH ZYS CZ. Analyzed the data: FMX HPZ HJH ZYS CZ. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: FMX HPZ HJH ZYS CZ. Wrote the paper: PCY.