About the Authors

Kuniyasu Soda

soda@jichi.ac.jp

Affiliations Department of Cardiovascular Research Institute, Saitama Medical Center, Jichi Medical University, Saitama-city, Saitama, Japan, Departments of Surgery, Saitama Medical Center, Jichi Medical University, Saitama-city, Saitama, Japan

Yoshihiko Kano

Affiliation Departments of Surgery, Saitama Medical Center, Jichi Medical University, Saitama-city, Saitama, Japan

Fumihiro Chiba

Affiliation Departments of Surgery, Saitama Medical Center, Jichi Medical University, Saitama-city, Saitama, Japan

Kei Koizumi

Affiliation First Department of Surgery, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan

Yuichiro Miyaki

Affiliation First Department of Surgery, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: KS. Performed the experiments: KS YK FC KK YM. Analyzed the data: KS YK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KK YM. Wrote the paper: KS.