About the Authors

Ansgar Reising

Contributed equally to this work with: Ansgar Reising, Saskia Sambale

Affiliation Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany

Saskia Sambale

Contributed equally to this work with: Ansgar Reising, Saskia Sambale

Affiliation Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany

Frank Donnerstag

Affiliation Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany

Julius J. Schmidt

Affiliation Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany

Carsten Hafer

Affiliation Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany

Bernhard M.W. Schmidt

Affiliation Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany

Jan T. Kielstein

Kielstein@yahoo.com

Affiliation Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany

Competing Interests

JTK recieved unrestricted research support from Fresenius Medical Care Germany. JTK received speaker fees from Fresenius Medical Care Germany. All other authors have declared that no competing interests exist. 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: AR SS JTK. Performed the experiments: AR SS FD CH JS BMWS. Analyzed the data: AR SS JTK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: FD. Wrote the paper: AR SS JTK.