About the Authors

Sandra A. Acosta

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Naoki Tajiri

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Kazutaka Shinozuka

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Hiroto Ishikawa

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Bethany Grimmig

Affiliations Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America, James A. Haley Veterans Affairs Hospital, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

David Diamond

Affiliation Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Paul R. Sanberg

Affiliations Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America, Office of Research and Innovation, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Paula C. Bickford

Affiliations Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America, James A. Haley Veterans Affairs Hospital, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Yuji Kaneko

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Cesar V. Borlongan

cborlong@health.usf.edu

Affiliation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida, United States of America

Competing Interests

CVB is supported by National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke 1R01NS071956-01, Department of Defense W81XWH-11-1-0634, James and Esther King Foundation for Biomedical Research Program, SanBio Inc., KMPHC and NeuralStem Inc. CVB is a PLOS ONE Editorial Board member. 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: CVB. Performed the experiments: SAA NT HI KS BG CVB. Analyzed the data: SAA NT PCB YK CVB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: NT KS HI BG DD PRS PCB YK CVB. Wrote the paper: SAA CVB.