About the Authors

Alexandra Aicher

Contributed equally to this work with: Alexandra Aicher, Christopher Heeschen

aicher_a@yahoo.com (AA); dimmeler@em.uni-frankfurt.de (SD)

Current address: School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom,

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine III, J. W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany

Christopher Heeschen

Contributed equally to this work with: Alexandra Aicher, Christopher Heeschen

Current address: Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO), Madrid, Spain

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine III, J. W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany

Susanne Feil

Affiliation Interfakultäres Institut für Biochemie, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Franz Hofmann

Affiliation Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Technische Universität München, München, Germany

Michael E. Mendelsohn

Affiliation Molecular Cardiology Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Robert Feil

Affiliation Interfakultäres Institut für Biochemie, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Stefanie Dimmeler

aicher_a@yahoo.com (AA); dimmeler@em.uni-frankfurt.de (SD)

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine III, J. W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AA CH SF MEM RF SD. Performed the experiments: AA CH SF RF. Analyzed the data: AA CH SF RF SD. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SF FH MEM RF. Wrote the paper: AA CH RF SD. Made critical revision of the drafted manuscript for important intellectual content: FH MEM.