About the Authors

Sushma Jadalannagari

Affiliations Department of Bioengineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America, Department of Hematology/Oncology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, United States of America

Gabriel Converse

Affiliations Department of Bioengineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America, Cardiac Regenerative Surgery Research Laboratories, Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America

Christopher McFall

Affiliation Cardiac Regenerative Surgery Research Laboratories, Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America

Eric Buse

Affiliation Cardiac Regenerative Surgery Research Laboratories, Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America

Michael Filla

Affiliation Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, United States of America

Maria T. Villar

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, United States of America

Antonio Artigues

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, United States of America

Adam J. Mellot

Affiliation Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, United States of America

Jinxi Wang

Affiliation Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, United States of America

Michael S. Detamore

Affiliation Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America

Richard A. Hopkins

Affiliations Department of Bioengineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America, Cardiac Regenerative Surgery Research Laboratories, Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America

Omar S. Aljitawi

omar_aljitawi@urmc.rochester.edu

Affiliations Department of Bioengineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America, Department of Hematology/Oncology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, United States of America

Competing Interests

As employees of the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, KT, BK, and TS have performed research studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies (Bayer-Schering, Celgene, GSK, Mundipharma, Novartis, Purdue, Sanofi-Aventis, Sanofi-Pasteur, Stada, and Takeda) unrelated to this study. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: OSA RAH MSD. Formal analysis: SJ CF MF. Funding acquisition: OSA. Investigation: SJ CF EB MF AA MTV AJM. Methodology: SJ AJM OSA RAH MSD. Project administration: SJ OSA. Resources: RAH JW MSD OSA. Supervision: OSA MSD RAH JW. Validation: SJ GC CF EB MF MTV AA AJM. Visualization: SJ AJM MF MTV AA. Writing – original draft: OSA. Writing – review & editing: SJ GC CF EB MF MTV AA AJM JW MSD RAH OSA.