About the Authors

Nicola Antonio Martino

nicmartino@libero.it

Affiliation Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation (DETO) – Section of Veterinary Clinics and Animal Productions, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Valenzano, Bari, Italy

Stephan Joel Reshkin

Affiliation Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics (DBBB), University Campus “Ernesto Quagliariello” University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

Elena Ciani

Affiliation Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics (DBBB), University Campus “Ernesto Quagliariello” University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

Maria Elena Dell'Aquila

Current address: Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics (DBBB), University Campus “Ernesto Quagliariello” University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

Affiliation Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation (DETO) – Section of Veterinary Clinics and Animal Productions, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Valenzano, Bari, Italy

Competing Interests

ERA-Amgen provided AMG641 for this study. (Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, California, United States of America; Research Program Agreement n ° 2011568566). This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: NAM SJR MED. Performed the experiments: NAM EC. Analyzed the data: EC NAM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MED SJR. Wrote the paper: MED NAM EC SJR.