About the Authors

Luping Huang

Affiliation Division of Nephrology/Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States of America

Yahuan Lou

Affiliation Dental Branch, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX, United States of America

Huiming Ju

Affiliation College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 25009, Jiangsu, P. R.China

Lin Zhang

Affiliation Center of General Surgery, Chengdu General Hospital of Chengdu Military Area Command, Chengdu, P. R. China

Jenny Szu-Chin Pan

Affiliation Division of Nephrology/Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States of America

April Ross

Affiliation Dental Branch, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX, United States of America

Yuxiang Sun

Affiliation Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States of America

Luan D. Truong

Affiliation Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Methodist Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College, Houston, Texas, United States of America

David Sheikh-Hamad

sheikh@bcm.tmc.edu

Affiliation Division of Nephrology/Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LH DSH. Performed the experiments: HJ LZ AR. Analyzed the data: YL JS-CP YS LDT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: YL LDT. Wrote the paper: LH DSH.