About the Authors

Michelangelo Di Giuseppe

Affiliation Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Federica Gambelli

Affiliation Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Gary W. Hoyle

Affiliation Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Informational Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, United States of America

Giuseppe Lungarella

Affiliation Department of Physiopathology, University of Siena, Siena, Italy

Sean M. Studer

Affiliation Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Thomas Richards

Affiliation Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Sam Yousem

Affiliation Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Ken McCurry

Affiliation Department of Thoracic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

James Dauber

Affiliation Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Naftali Kaminski

Affiliation Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

George Leikauf

Affiliation Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Luis A. Ortiz

lao1@pitt.edu

Affiliations Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: FG GWH GDL LAO. Performed the experiments: MDG FG GWH SAY NK GDL LAO. Analyzed the data: MDG FG GWH GL SMS TJR SAY JD NK GDL LAO. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MDG GWH GL SMS SAY KRM JD NK GDL LAO. Wrote the paper: NK GDL LAO. Enrolled patients: LAO.