About the Authors

Huifang Hao

Contributed equally to this work with: Huifang Hao, Yutaka Maeda

Current address: Department of Biology, College of Life Science, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China

Affiliation Kawasaki Hospital Research Center, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan

Yutaka Maeda

Contributed equally to this work with: Huifang Hao, Yutaka Maeda

Affiliation Division of Pulmonary Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Takuya Fukazawa

FukazawaT@aol.com

Affiliation Department of General Surgery, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan

Tomoki Yamatsuji

Affiliation Department of General Surgery, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan

Munenori Takaoka

Affiliation Department of General Surgery, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan

Xiao-Hong Bao

Affiliations Kawasaki Hospital Research Center, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan, Department of Biochemistry, School of Basical Medicine, Liaoning Medical University, Jinzhou, China

Junji Matsuoka

Affiliation Department of Palliative Care and Cancer Survivorship, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Tatsuo Okui

Affiliation Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Tsuyoshi Shimo

Affiliation Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Nagio Takigawa

Affiliation Department of General Internal Medicine 4, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan

Yasuko Tomono

Affiliation Shigei Medical Research Institute, Okayama, Japan

Motowo Nakajima

Affiliation SBI Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

Iris M. Fink-Baldauf

Affiliation Division of Pulmonary Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Sandra Nelson

Affiliation Drug Discovery Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Ohio, United States of America

William Seibel

Affiliation Drug Discovery Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Ohio, United States of America

Ruben Papoian

Affiliation Drug Discovery Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Ohio, United States of America

Jeffrey A. Whitsett

Affiliation Division of Pulmonary Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Yoshio Naomoto

Affiliation Department of General Surgery, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan

Competing Interests

Dr. MN is an employee of a commercial company 'SBI Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd'. However, SBI Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd did not fund this study and there are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. Employment by the SBI Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. 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: YM TF JAW. Performed the experiments: HH YM TF XHB TO TS YT IMFB. Analyzed the data: YM TF TY MT JM NT MN YN. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SN WS RP. Wrote the paper: HH TF YM JAW.