About the Authors

Synnøve Magnussen

synnove.magnussen@uit.no

Affiliation Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Elin Hadler-Olsen

Affiliation Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Nadezhda Latysheva

Affiliation Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Emma Pirila

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

Sonja E. Steigen

Affiliations Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway, Diagnostic Clinic - Department of Clinical Pathology, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Robert Hanes

Affiliation Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Tuula Salo

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

Jan-Olof Winberg

Affiliation Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Lars Uhlin-Hansen

Affiliations Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway, Diagnostic Clinic - Department of Clinical Pathology, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Gunbjørg Svineng

Affiliation Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SM EHO JOW LUH GS. Performed the experiments: SM EHO NL EP SES RH. Analyzed the data: SM EHO NL EP SES RH TS JOW LUH GS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SM EHO NL EP SES RH TS JOW GS. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: SM EHO NL EP SES RH TS JOW LUH GS.