About the Authors

Konstantin Astafurov

konstantin.astafurov@downstate.edu (KA); john.danias@downstate.edu (JD)

Affiliation Department of Cell Biology, State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America

Eman Elhawy

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America

Lizhen Ren

Affiliation Department of Cell Biology, State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America

Cecilia Q. Dong

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America

Christina Igboin

Affiliation Division of Pediatric Dentistry, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America

Leslie Hyman

Affiliations Department of Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America, State University of New York (SUNY) Eye Institute, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America

Ann Griffen

Affiliation Division of Pediatric Dentistry, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America

Thomas Mittag

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America

John Danias

konstantin.astafurov@downstate.edu (KA); john.danias@downstate.edu (JD)

Affiliations Department of Cell Biology, State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America, Department of Ophthalmology, State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America, State University of New York (SUNY) Eye Institute, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JD LH LR AG TM KA. Performed the experiments: KA EE LR CQD CI. Analyzed the data: KA EE LR CQD CI LH AG TM JD. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LH AG TM JD. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: KA TM JD. Contributed extensively to the work presented in this paper: KA EE LR CQD CI LH AG TM JD. Conceived of studies in animals: JD KA TM. Conceived of human experiments: JD LH AG. Performed the majority of animal experiments on DBA mice: KA. Recruited patients and collected samples: EE. Performed a significant portion of animal experiments on DBA mice and all of C57 mice: LR. Performed analysis of C57 data: CD. Performed oral bacterial load determination: CI.