About the Authors

Zhousheng Xiao

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, 38165, United States of America

Li Cao

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, 38165, United States of America

Yingjuan Liang

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, 38165, United States of America

Jinsong Huang

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, 38165, United States of America

Amber Rath Stern

Affiliations Department of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, 64108, United States of America, Engineering Systems, Inc., Charlotte, North Carolina, 28227, United States of America

Mark Dallas

Affiliation Department of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, 64108, United States of America

Mark Johnson

Affiliation Department of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, 64108, United States of America

Leigh Darryl Quarles

dquarles@uthsc.edu

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, 38165, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Dr. Amber Rath Stern is employed by a commercial company, Engineering Systems, Inc. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ZSX ARS MJ LDQ. Performed the experiments: ZSX LC YJL JSH MD. Analyzed the data: ZSX JSH ARS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ZSX ARS MJ LDQ. Wrote the paper: ZSX ARS LDQ.