About the Authors

Anton V. Borovjagin

Affiliations Department of Periodontics, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Institute of Oral Health Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Juan Dong

Contributed equally to this work with: Juan Dong, Michael J. Passineau, Mary MacDougall

Affiliations Department of Orthodontics, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Institute of Oral Health Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Michael J. Passineau

Contributed equally to this work with: Juan Dong, Michael J. Passineau, Mary MacDougall

Affiliation Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Allegheny-Singer Research Institute, West-Penn Allegheny Health System, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Changchun Ren

Affiliations Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Institute of Oral Health Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Ejvis Lamani

Affiliations Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Institute of Oral Health Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Olga A. Mamaeva

Affiliation Institute of Oral Health Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Hongju Wu

Affiliations Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Division of Human Gene Therapy, Department of Medicine, The Gene Therapy Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Enid Keyser

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Miho Murakami

Affiliation Division of Human Gene Therapy, Department of Medicine, The Gene Therapy Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Shuo Chen

Affiliation Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Dental School University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, United States of America

Mary MacDougall

Contributed equally to this work with: Juan Dong, Michael J. Passineau, Mary MacDougall

macdougall@uab.edu

Affiliations Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Institute of Oral Health Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AVB MJP JD OAM M. MacDougall. Performed the experiments: AVB MJP JD OAM CR EL EK SC M. MacDougall. Analyzed the data: AVB OAM JD MJP M. MacDougall. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: M. Murakami HW EK OAM SC M. MacDougall. Wrote the paper: AVB MJP OAM JD M. MacDougall. Obtaining informed consent from the patient/parent: JD MJM.