About the Authors

Miho Nara

Affiliation Department of Hematology, Nephrology, and Rheumatology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan

Kazuaki Teshima

Affiliation Department of Hematology, Nephrology, and Rheumatology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan

Atsushi Watanabe

Affiliation Department of Hematology, Nephrology, and Rheumatology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan

Mitsugu Ito

Affiliation Department of Hematology, Nephrology, and Rheumatology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan

Keiko Iwamoto

Affiliation Department of Hematology, Nephrology, and Rheumatology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan

Atsushi Kitabayashi

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Akita Kumiai General Hospital, Akita, Japan

Masaaki Kume

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Hiraka General Hospital, Yokote, Japan

Yoshiaki Hatano

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Yamamoto Kumiai General Hospital, Noshiro, Japan

Naoto Takahashi

Affiliation Department of Hematology, Nephrology, and Rheumatology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan

Shinsuke Iida

Affiliation Department of Medical Oncology and Immunology, Nagoya City University School of Medical Science, Nagoya, Japan

Kenichi Sawada

Affiliation Department of Hematology, Nephrology, and Rheumatology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan

Hiroyuki Tagawa

htagawa0279jp@yahoo.co.jp

Affiliation Department of Hematology, Nephrology, and Rheumatology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HT MN. Performed the experiments: MN KT MI AW HT. Analyzed the data: MN KT AW MI KI AK MK YH NT SI KS HT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: YH SI. Wrote the paper: HT MN.