About the Authors

Xue Gao

XG and GJW are co-first authors on this work.

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China, Department of Otolaryngology, Hainan Branch of PLA General Hospital, Sanya, P. R. China, Department of Otolaryngology, the Second Artillery General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China

Guo-Jian Wang

XG and GJW are co-first authors on this work.

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China, Department of Otolaryngology, Hainan Branch of PLA General Hospital, Sanya, P. R. China

Yong-Yi Yuan

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China

Feng Xin

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China

Ming-Yu Han

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China, Department of Otolaryngology, Hainan Branch of PLA General Hospital, Sanya, P. R. China

Jing-Qiao Lu

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Hui Zhao

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China, Department of Otolaryngology, Hainan Branch of PLA General Hospital, Sanya, P. R. China

Fei Yu

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China

Jin-Cao Xu

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology, the Second Artillery General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China

Mei-Guang Zhang

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology, the Second Artillery General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China

Jiang Dong

Affiliation Xi’an Research Institute of Hi_tech, Hongqing, Xi’an, Shaanxi, P. R. China

Xi Lin

daipu301@vip.sina.com (PD); xlin2@emory.edu (XL)

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Pu Dai

daipu301@vip.sina.com (PD); xlin2@emory.edu (XL)

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China, Department of Otolaryngology, Hainan Branch of PLA General Hospital, Sanya, P. R. China

Competing Interests

All authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: XG PD XL. Performed the experiments: XG GJW YYY FX. Analyzed the data: MYH HZ FY JD JQL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JCX MGZ. Wrote the paper: XG PD XL.