About the Authors

Aaron W. James

Contributed equally to this work with: Aaron W. James, Xinli Zhang, Mihaela Crisan

awjames@jhmi.edu

Affiliations Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, UCLA and Orthopaedic Hospital Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Xinli Zhang

Contributed equally to this work with: Aaron W. James, Xinli Zhang, Mihaela Crisan

Affiliation Division of Growth and Development and Section of Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Mihaela Crisan

Contributed equally to this work with: Aaron W. James, Xinli Zhang, Mihaela Crisan

Affiliation Center for Cardiovascular Science and MRC Center for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Winters R. Hardy

Affiliation UCLA and Orthopaedic Hospital Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Pei Liang

Affiliation UCLA and Orthopaedic Hospital Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Carolyn A. Meyers

Affiliation Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Sonja Lobo

Affiliation UCLA and Orthopaedic Hospital Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Venu Lagishetty

Affiliation UCLA and Orthopaedic Hospital Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Martin K. Childers

Affiliation Rehabilitation Medicine Clinic, UWMC, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Greg Asatrian

Affiliation Division of Growth and Development and Section of Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Catherine Ding

Affiliation Division of Growth and Development and Section of Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Yu-Hsin Yen

Affiliation Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Erin Zou

Affiliation Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Kang Ting

Affiliation Division of Growth and Development and Section of Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Bruno Peault

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work as co-senior authors.

Affiliations UCLA and Orthopaedic Hospital Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Center for Cardiovascular Science and MRC Center for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Chia Soo

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work as co-senior authors.

Affiliations UCLA and Orthopaedic Hospital Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

KT and CS are inventors of perivascular stem cell-related patents filed from UCLA. KT and CS are founders of Scarless Laboratories, Inc. which sublicenses perivascular stem cell-related patents from the UC Regents, and who also hold equity in the company. CS is also an officer of Scarless Laboratories, Inc. XZ, KT and CS are inventors of NELL-1-related patents. XZ, KT and CS are founders and/or board members of Bone Biologics Inc., which sublicenses NELL-1 patents from the UC Regents, and also hold equity in the company. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The relevant patent titles and patent/patent publication numbers are listed below: “Compositions comprising perivascular stem cells and nell-1 protein”: Patent number: US-9,301,976; Patent publication numbers; US 20130309207, WO 2012024573 A2, EP 2606121; B1, “Perivascular stem cell composition for bone” Patent publication numbers: US 2012/0244128 A1, WO2011022070 A2; “Nell-1 enhanced bone mineralization”: Patent number: US-8,207,120, US-7,776,361, US-7,052,856, and US-7884,066; Patent publication number: US20090060988 A1, WO 2001024821 A1. US8207120 B2, EP1551978 A2”; “NELL-1 peptide(s)”: Patent number: US-8,053,412 and US-7,807,787; Patent publication numbers: US8053412 B2, US7807787 B2; “Nell-1 compositions” Patent publication number: CA2704190 A1; “Nell peptide expression systems and bone formation activity of nell peptide” Patent number WO2004072100A2; “Isoform nell-1 peptide” US patent number: US-9,447,155; Patent publication number WO2010111421 A3.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: AWJ WRH XZ BP. Data curation: XZ MC PL BP VL SL MKC. Formal analysis: AWJ XZ MC CAM PL VL SL MKC. Funding acquisition: AWJ KT BP CS. Investigation: MC PL CAM. Methodology: AWJ WRH XZ. Project administration: XZ. Resources: AWJ WRH XZ KT BP CS. Supervision: AWJ XZ. Visualization: CAM YHY EZ GA CD. Writing – original draft: CAM. Writing – review & editing: CAM AWJ.