About the Authors

Cristiane Machado Mengatto

Affiliations Division of Advanced Prosthodontics, Biomaterials and Hospital Dentistry, The Jane and Jerry Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology, University of California Los Angeles School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Department of Prosthodontics and Periodontology, Piracicaba School of Dentistry, State University of Campinas, Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Federico Mussano

Affiliations Division of Advanced Prosthodontics, Biomaterials and Hospital Dentistry, The Jane and Jerry Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology, University of California Los Angeles School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Department of Biomedical Science and Human Oncology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Yoshitomo Honda

Affiliation Division of Advanced Prosthodontics, Biomaterials and Hospital Dentistry, The Jane and Jerry Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology, University of California Los Angeles School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Christopher S. Colwell

Affiliation Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Ichiro Nishimura

inishimura@dentistry.ucla.edu

Affiliation Division of Advanced Prosthodontics, Biomaterials and Hospital Dentistry, The Jane and Jerry Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology, University of California Los Angeles School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: this research was supported, in part by Biomet3I, Palm Beach Garden, FL. Because Biomet3I provided the unrestricted gift fund, which supported, in part, this study, the sponsor does not restrict the distribution of the data in the manuscript. The authors further confirm that this sponsorship does not alter their adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors. In fact, the microarray data has been submitted to public depositories such as ArrayExpress.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: IN. Performed the experiments: CMM FM. Analyzed the data: IN CSC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: IN. Wrote the paper: CMM FM CSC IN. Performed the key experiment of in vitro NPAS2 knockdown: YH.