About the Authors

Yuri Kashima

Contributed equally to this work with: Yuri Kashima, Satoshi Kanematsu

Affiliation Akitaya Honten Co., Ltd., Kano, Gifu, Japan

Satoshi Kanematsu

Contributed equally to this work with: Yuri Kashima, Satoshi Kanematsu

Affiliation Akitaya Honten Co., Ltd., Kano, Gifu, Japan

Saori Asai

Affiliation Akitaya Honten Co., Ltd., Kano, Gifu, Japan

Mio Kusada

Affiliation Department of Applied Life Science, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, Yanagido, Gifu, Japan

Suzuyo Watanabe

Affiliation Akitaya Honten Co., Ltd., Kano, Gifu, Japan

Takuji Kawashima

Affiliation Akitaya Honten Co., Ltd., Kano, Gifu, Japan

Tadashi Nakamura

Affiliation Akitaya Honten Co., Ltd., Kano, Gifu, Japan

Masaya Shimada

Affiliation Department of Applied Life Science, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, Yanagido, Gifu, Japan

Tsuyoshi Goto

Affiliation Department of Applied Life Science, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, Yanagido, Gifu, Japan

Satoshi Nagaoka

nagaoka@gifu-u.ac.jp

Affiliation Department of Applied Life Science, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, Yanagido, Gifu, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: YK, SK, SA, TK, SW are employees of AKITAYA HONTEN Co. Ltd., which engages in the manufacture and sale of royal jelly products and also provided the royal jelly used in this study. TN is the president of AKITAYAHONTEN Co. Ltd.. MK, MS, TG and SN are employees of Gifu University. YK, SK, MK, TK, SW, TN, TG and SN are inventors on the filed patent application numbered JP2012-106988A and titled “Cholic acid binding agent, serum cholesterol lowering agent, and method of lowering serum cholesterol.” and the filed patent application numbered JP2013-091606A and titled “Serum cholesterol lowering agent, and method of lowering serum cholesterol.” The other authors have no conflict of interest. Gifu University and AKITAYAHONTEN Co., Ltd. have the filed patent applications on JP2012-106988A and JP2013-091606A. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE politics, including sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SN TK. Performed the experiments: YK SK MK SW SA. Analyzed the data: YK SK SA MK SW TK TN MS TG SN. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: YK SK SA MK SW TK TN MS TG SN. Wrote the paper: YK SK TK MS TG SN.