About the Authors

Weijie Wu

Affiliations Department of Stomatology, Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai, China, Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Sciences and Engineering School, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America

Shuping Gu

Affiliation Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Sciences and Engineering School, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America

Cheng Sun

Affiliation Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Sciences and Engineering School, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America

Wei He

Affiliations Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Sciences and Engineering School, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Affiliated Stomatological Hospital, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China

Xiaohua Xie

Affiliations Department of Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Dentistry, Texas A&M Health Sciences Center, Dallas, Texas, United States of America, Department of Endodontics, Institute of Hard Tissue Development and Regeneration, the 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China

Xihai Li

Affiliations Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Sciences and Engineering School, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America, Academy of Integrative Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, China

Wenduo Ye

Affiliation Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Sciences and Engineering School, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America

Chunlin Qin

Affiliation Department of Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Dentistry, Texas A&M Health Sciences Center, Dallas, Texas, United States of America

Yiping Chen

Affiliation Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Sciences and Engineering School, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America

Jing Xiao

xiaoj@dlmedu.edu.cn (JX); cliu@bcd.tamhsc.edu (CL)

Affiliation Department of Oral Biology, College of Stomatology, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China

Chao Liu

xiaoj@dlmedu.edu.cn (JX); cliu@bcd.tamhsc.edu (CL)

Affiliations Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Sciences and Engineering School, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Dentistry, Texas A&M Health Sciences Center, Dallas, Texas, United States of America, Department of Oral Biology, College of Stomatology, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: YC CQ JX CL. Performed the experiments: WW CS WH XX XL. Analyzed the data: SG WY CL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: YC CQ. Wrote the paper: CL.