About the Authors

Giovanni Corona

Contributed equally to this work with: Giovanni Corona, Corinna Giuliani, Gabriele Parenti

Affiliation Endocrinology Unit, Maggiore-Bellaria Hospital, Bologna, Italy

Corinna Giuliani

Contributed equally to this work with: Giovanni Corona, Corinna Giuliani, Gabriele Parenti

Affiliation Endocrine Unit, “Center for Research, Transfer and High Education on Chronic, Inflammatory, Degenerative and Neoplastic Disorders for the Development of Novel Therapies” (DENOThe), Dept. of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy

Gabriele Parenti

Contributed equally to this work with: Giovanni Corona, Corinna Giuliani, Gabriele Parenti

Affiliation Endocrine Unit, “Center for Research, Transfer and High Education on Chronic, Inflammatory, Degenerative and Neoplastic Disorders for the Development of Novel Therapies” (DENOThe), Dept. of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy

Dario Norello

Affiliation Endocrine Unit, “Center for Research, Transfer and High Education on Chronic, Inflammatory, Degenerative and Neoplastic Disorders for the Development of Novel Therapies” (DENOThe), Dept. of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy

Joseph G. Verbalis

Affiliation Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, United States of America

Gianni Forti

Affiliation Endocrine Unit, “Center for Research, Transfer and High Education on Chronic, Inflammatory, Degenerative and Neoplastic Disorders for the Development of Novel Therapies” (DENOThe), Dept. of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy

Mario Maggi

Affiliation Andrology Unit, “Center for Research, Transfer and High Education on Chronic, Inflammatory, Degenerative and Neoplastic Disorders for the Development of Novel Therapies” (DENOThe), Dept. of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy

Alessandro Peri

alessandro.peri@unifi.it

Affiliation Endocrine Unit, “Center for Research, Transfer and High Education on Chronic, Inflammatory, Degenerative and Neoplastic Disorders for the Development of Novel Therapies” (DENOThe), Dept. of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy

Competing Interests

Joseph G. Verbalis has served as a consultant and member of advisory boards and Speakers' Bureau for Astellas Pharma US, Inc., as a consultant and member of advisory boards for Sanofi-Aventis, and as a consultant for Otsuka; Alessandro Peri has served as a consultant and member of advisory boards for Otsuka. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. Giovanni Corona, Corinna Giuliani, Gabriele Parenti, Dario Norello, Gianni Forti and Mario Maggi have nothing to disclose.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GC CG GP DN JGV GF MM AP. Performed the experiments: GC CG GP DN. Analyzed the data: GC JGV GF MM AP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AP GC MM GF. Wrote the paper: GC CG AP JGV.