About the Authors

Xiaodong Mu

Affiliations The Laboratory of Molecular Pathology, Stem Cell Research Center (SCRC), Children's Hospital of UPMC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Hairong Peng

Affiliation Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Haiying Pan

Affiliation The Laboratory of Molecular Pathology, Stem Cell Research Center (SCRC), Children's Hospital of UPMC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Johnny Huard

Affiliations The Laboratory of Molecular Pathology, Stem Cell Research Center (SCRC), Children's Hospital of UPMC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Yong Li

yongli@pitt.edu

Affiliations The Laboratory of Molecular Pathology, Stem Cell Research Center (SCRC), Children's Hospital of UPMC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: XM HRP JH YL. Performed the experiments: XM HYP. Analyzed the data: XM YL. Wrote the paper: XM YL.