About the Authors

Nan Jiang

* These authors contribute to this work equally.

Affiliations Multi-Organ Transplant Program, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada, Department of Surgery, Pathology, and Oncology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, Liver Transplant Center, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Transplantation Research Institute of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

Xusheng Zhang

* These authors contribute to this work equally.

Affiliations Multi-Organ Transplant Program, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada, Department of Surgery, Pathology, and Oncology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Xiufen Zheng

Affiliations Multi-Organ Transplant Program, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada, Department of Surgery, Pathology, and Oncology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Di Chen

Affiliations Multi-Organ Transplant Program, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada, Department of Surgery, Pathology, and Oncology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Kingsun Siu

Affiliations Multi-Organ Transplant Program, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada, Department of Surgery, Pathology, and Oncology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Hongmei Wang

Affiliation Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Medical Science, and Medical School of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China

Thomas E. Ichim

Affiliation Medistem Laboratories, San Diego, USA

Douglas Quan

Affiliations Multi-Organ Transplant Program, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada, Department of Surgery, Pathology, and Oncology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Vivian McAlister

Affiliation Multi-Organ Transplant Program, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada

Guihua Chen

Affiliation Liver Transplant Center, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Transplantation Research Institute of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

Wei-Ping Min

** Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr. Wei-Ping Min (weiping.min@uwo.ca), 339 Windermere Road, University Hospital C9-136, London, Ontario, N6A 5A5, Canada. Tel: 519-663-2985, Fax: 519-663-3295.

Affiliations Multi-Organ Transplant Program, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada, Department of Surgery, Pathology, and Oncology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, Liver Transplant Center, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Transplantation Research Institute of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests. Thomas E Ichim is employed by Medistem Laboratories. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: NJ X. Zhang HW DQ VM GC WM. Performed the experiments: NJ X. Zhang Z. Zheng DC KS. Wrote the paper: NJ X. Zhang TI DQ GC WM.