About the Authors

Ralf Gaebel

Affiliation Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC), Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Dario Furlani

Affiliation Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC), Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Heiko Sorg

Affiliation Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC), Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Bianca Polchow

Affiliation Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC), Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Johannes Frank

Affiliation Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC), Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Karen Bieback

Affiliation Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Immunology, German Red Cross Blood Service of Baden-Württemberg-Hessen, Mannheim, Germany

Weiwei Wang

Affiliation Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC), Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Christian Klopsch

Affiliation Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC), Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Lee-Lee Ong

Affiliation Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC), Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Wenzhong Li

wenzhong.li@med.uni-rostock.de (WL); nan.ma@med.uni-rostock.de (NM)

Affiliation Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC), Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Nan Ma

Contributed equally to this work with: Nan Ma, Gustav Steinhoff

wenzhong.li@med.uni-rostock.de (WL); nan.ma@med.uni-rostock.de (NM)

Affiliation Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC), Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Gustav Steinhoff

Contributed equally to this work with: Nan Ma, Gustav Steinhoff

Affiliation Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC), Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: WL NM GS. Performed the experiments: RG DF BP JF WW LLO WL NM. Analyzed the data: RG DF BP JF WL NM GS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KB CK. Wrote the paper: RG DF HS WL NM. Performed statistical analysis: RG DF WL NM.