About the Authors

Johannes Ehler

johannes.ehler@med.uni-rostock.de

Affiliations Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany, Department of Neurology, Neuroimmunology Section, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Sebastian Koball

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Martin Sauer

Affiliation Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Steffen Mitzner

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Heiko Hickstein

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany, KfH Dialysis Centre Wismar, Wismar, Germany

Reiner Benecke

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Neuroimmunology Section, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Uwe K. Zettl

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Neuroimmunology Section, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Competing Interests

JE MS SM and HH have declared that no competing interests exist. The corresponding author has read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: RB received research support from Merz Pharmaceuticals. UKZ received speaker fees from Bayer Healthcare, Biogen Idec, Genzyme, Merck-Serono, Novartis and Teva. SK received speaker fees from Fresenius Medical Care. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JE UKZ. Performed the experiments: JE UKZ SK SM HH. Analyzed the data: JE UKZ MS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SK SM HH. Wrote the paper: JE UKZ SK MS. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: JE UKZ SK MS SM HH RB.