About the Authors

Sarfaraz Ahmad

sahmad@wakehealth.edu

Affiliation Division of Surgical Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Tony Simmons

Affiliation Internal Medicine/Cardiology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Jasmina Varagic

Affiliations Division of Surgical Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America, Hypertension and Vascular Research Center, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Norihito Moniwa

Affiliation Division of Surgical Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Mark C. Chappell

Affiliations Division of Surgical Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America, Hypertension and Vascular Research Center, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Carlos M. Ferrario

Affiliations Division of Surgical Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America, Internal Medicine/Nephrology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SA JV MCC CMF. Performed the experiments: SA. Analyzed the data: SA JV CMF. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SA TS JV NM CMF. Wrote the paper: SA JV CMF.