About the Authors

Michael A. Ajakaiye

Affiliation Center for Immunology and Inflammation, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and Department of Surgery, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Manhasset, New York, United States of America

Asha Jacob

Affiliation Center for Immunology and Inflammation, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and Department of Surgery, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Manhasset, New York, United States of America

Rongqian Wu

Affiliation Center for Immunology and Inflammation, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and Department of Surgery, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Manhasset, New York, United States of America

Weng Lang Yang

Affiliation Center for Immunology and Inflammation, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and Department of Surgery, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Manhasset, New York, United States of America

Jeffrey Nicastro

Affiliation Center for Immunology and Inflammation, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and Department of Surgery, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Manhasset, New York, United States of America

Gene F. Coppa

Affiliation Center for Immunology and Inflammation, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and Department of Surgery, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Manhasset, New York, United States of America

Ping Wang

pwang@nshs.edu

Affiliation Center for Immunology and Inflammation, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and Department of Surgery, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Manhasset, New York, United States of America

Competing Interests

One of the authors (P. Wang) is an inventor of the pending PCT application #WO/2006/122327: “Milk fat globule epidermal growth factor-factor VIII and sepsis”? and PCT application #WO/2009/064448: “Prevention and treatment of inflammation and organ injury after ischemia/reperfusion using MFG-E8.”? These patent applications cover the fundamental concept of using MFG-E8 for the treatment of sepsis and ischemia/reperfusion injury. Other authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RW PW. Performed the experiments: MA WLY. Analyzed the data: MA AJ RW WLY. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: PW. Wrote the paper: MA AJ RW JN GC PW.