About the Authors

Mercedes F. Rivera

Affiliation Department of Periodontology, College of Dentistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Ju-Youn Lee

Affiliations Department of Periodontology, College of Dentistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Department of Periodontology, School of Dentistry, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea

Monika Aneja

Affiliation Department of Periodontology, College of Dentistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Vishalkant Goswami

Affiliation Department of Periodontology, College of Dentistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Liying Liu

Affiliation Departments of Medicine and Molecular Genetics & Microbiology, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Irina M. Velsko

Affiliation Department of Periodontology, College of Dentistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Sasanka S. Chukkapalli

Affiliation Department of Periodontology, College of Dentistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Indraneel Bhattacharyya

Affiliation Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Hao Chen

Affiliation Departments of Medicine and Molecular Genetics & Microbiology, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Alexandra R. Lucas

Affiliation Departments of Medicine and Molecular Genetics & Microbiology, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Lakshmyya N. Kesavalu

Kesavalu@dental.ufl.edu

Affiliations Department of Periodontology, College of Dentistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Department of Oral Biology, College of Dentistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LK ARL. Performed the experiments: LK ARL MR JYL MA LL IV SC VG IB HC. Analyzed the data: LK ARL MR IV SC. Wrote the paper: LK ARL MR IV SC.