About the Authors

Dong-Ki Kim

Affiliation Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine at Scott and White, Temple, Texas, United States of America

Hosoon Choi

Affiliation Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine at Scott and White, Temple, Texas, United States of America

Hidetaka Nishida

Affiliation Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine at Scott and White, Temple, Texas, United States of America

Joo Youn Oh

Current address: Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul National University Hospital, Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Affiliation Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine at Scott and White, Temple, Texas, United States of America

Carl Gregory

Affiliation Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine at Scott and White, Temple, Texas, United States of America

Ryang Hwa Lee

Affiliation Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine at Scott and White, Temple, Texas, United States of America

Ji Min Yu

Current address: Department of Translational Research, CHA Bio & Diostech Co., Ltd. Yeoksam dong, Gangnam gu, Republic of Korea

Affiliation Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine at Scott and White, Temple, Texas, United States of America

Jun Watanabe

Current address: Department of Anatomy, Showa University School of Medicine, Hatanodai, Shinakawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Affiliation Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine at Scott and White, Temple, Texas, United States of America

Su Yeon An

Affiliation Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine at Scott and White, Temple, Texas, United States of America

Thomas J. Bartosh

Affiliation Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine at Scott and White, Temple, Texas, United States of America

Darwin J. Prockop

Prockop@medicine.tamhsc.edu

Affiliation Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine at Scott and White, Temple, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

DJP is chair of the scientific advisory board and has a small equity share (<5%) in Temple Therapeutics LLC that has an interest in rTSG-6. The other authors do not have any potential conflicts of interest. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DKK DJP. Performed the experiments: DKK HN HC SA TJB JW JO JY CG RL. Analyzed the data: DKK DJP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DKK HN CG JO RL. Wrote the paper: DKK DJP.