About the Authors

Sirpa Salo

Contributed equally to this work with: Sirpa Salo, Carolina Bitu

Affiliation Department of Diagnostics and Oral Medicine, Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Carolina Bitu

Contributed equally to this work with: Sirpa Salo, Carolina Bitu

Affiliation Department of Diagnostics and Oral Medicine, Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Kalle Merkku

Affiliation Department of Diagnostics and Oral Medicine, Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Pia Nyberg

Affiliation Department of Diagnostics and Oral Medicine, Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Ibrahim O. Bello

Affiliation Department of Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Oral Sciences, King Saud University, College of Dentistry, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Jussi Vuoristo

Affiliation Department of Diagnostics and Oral Medicine, Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Meeri Sutinen

Affiliation Department of Diagnostics and Oral Medicine, Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Hannu Vähänikkilä

Affiliation Department of Pedodontics, Cardiology and Endodontology, Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Daniela E. Costea

Affiliation Section for Pathology, the Gade Institute University of Bergen Haukeland Hospital, Bergen, Norway

Joonas Kauppila

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Department of Surgery, University of Oulu, , and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland

Petri Lehenkari

Affiliation Department of Anatomy, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Dan Dayan

Affiliation Department of Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine, School of Dentistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Marilena Vered

Affiliations Department of Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine, School of Dentistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, Institute of Pathology, the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel

Juha Risteli

Affiliation Institute of Diagnostics, Department of Clinical Chemistry, University of Oulu, and NordLab, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland

Tuula Salo

tuula.salo@oulu.fi

Affiliations Department of Diagnostics and Oral Medicine, Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland, Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland, Medical Research Center, Oulu, Finland

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SS TS PN PL DD MV. Performed the experiments: SS CB KM JV MS. Analyzed the data: JV HV JK IOB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JR DC PL. Wrote the manuscript: SS TS CB PL JR MV DD.