About the Authors

Naoto Terami

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Daisuke Ogawa

daiogawa@md.okayama-u.ac.jp

Affiliations Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan, Department of Diabetic Nephropathy, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Hiromi Tachibana

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Takashi Hatanaka

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Jun Wada

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Atsuko Nakatsuka

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Jun Eguchi

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Chikage Sato Horiguchi

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Naoko Nishii

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Hiroshi Yamada

Affiliation Department of Neurochemistry, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Kohji Takei

Affiliation Department of Neurochemistry, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Hirofumi Makino

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan

Competing Interests

D. Ogawa belongs to the Department of Diabetic Nephropathy, which is endowed by Boehringer Ingelheim. J. Wada is a consultant for Boehringer Ingelheim and receives speaker honoraria from Novartis. H. Makino is a consultant for AbbVie, Astellas and Teijin, receives speaker honoraria from Astellas, Boehringer-ingelheim, Chugai, Daiichi Sankyo, Dainippon Sumitomo, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Takeda, and Tanabe Mitsubishi, and receives grant support from Astellas, Boehringer-ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, Dainippon Sumitomo, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Mochida, MSD, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Takeda, and Tanabe Mitsubishi. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. 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: DO. Performed the experiments: NT DO HT TH CSH. Analyzed the data: JW AN JE NN HY. Wrote the paper: DO KT HM.