About the Authors

David A. White

Contributed equally to this work with: David A. White, Lu Fang

Affiliations Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia, Department of Medicine, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Lu Fang

Contributed equally to this work with: David A. White, Lu Fang

Affiliation Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia

William Chan

Affiliation Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia

Eric F. Morand

Affiliation Centre for Inflammatory Diseases, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Helen Kiriazis

Affiliation Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia

Stephen J. Duffy

Affiliations Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, Department of Medicine, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Andrew J. Taylor

Affiliations Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, Department of Medicine, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Anthony M. Dart

Affiliations Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, Department of Medicine, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Xiao-Jun Du

xiaoming.gao@bakeridi.edu.au (X-MG); xiao-jun.du@bakeridi.edu.au (X-JD)

Affiliations Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia, Department of Medicine, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Xiao-Ming Gao

xiaoming.gao@bakeridi.edu.au (X-MG); xiao-jun.du@bakeridi.edu.au (X-JD)

Affiliations Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia, Department of Surgery, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests. The authors declare that although Cortical pharmaceutical company donated the anti-MIF compound, COR100140, it did not influence any part of this research. This study was partly funded by a postgraduate scholarship from GlaxoSmithKline Australia to WC. There are no further patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: XMG XJD AMD. Performed the experiments: XMG DAW LF WC HK SJD AJT. Analyzed the data: XMG DAW LF WC HK SJD AJT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: EFM SJD AJT. Wrote the manuscript: XMG DAW XJD.