About the Authors

Qinghua Liu

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Key Laboratory of Nephrology, Ministry of Health of China, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Zhibin Li

Affiliations Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Key Laboratory of Nephrology, Ministry of Health of China, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China, Epidemiology Research Unit, Translational Research Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Hui Wang

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Xiaochao Chen

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, People’s Republic of China

Xiuqing Dong

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Key Laboratory of Nephrology, Ministry of Health of China, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Haiping Mao

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Key Laboratory of Nephrology, Ministry of Health of China, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Jiaqing Tan

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Key Laboratory of Nephrology, Ministry of Health of China, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Ning Luo

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Key Laboratory of Nephrology, Ministry of Health of China, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Richard J. Johnson

Affiliation Division of Renal Diseases & Hypertension, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America

Weiqing Chen

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Xueqing Yu

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Key Laboratory of Nephrology, Ministry of Health of China, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Wei Chen

vvchen66@gmail.com

Affiliation Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Key Laboratory of Nephrology, Ministry of Health of China, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: QHL XQY WC. Performed the experiments: QHL HW XCC XQD HPM JQT NL. Analyzed the data: QHL ZBL WQC WC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: RJJ. Wrote the paper: QHL WC.