About the Authors

Akira Naito

akira-n.390@chiba-u.jp

Affiliation Department of Respirology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-Ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan

Nobuhiro Tanabe

Affiliations Department of Respirology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-Ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan, Department of Advanced Medicine in Pulmonary Hypertension, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-Ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan

Takayuki Jujo

Affiliations Department of Respirology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-Ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan, Department of Advanced Medicine in Pulmonary Hypertension, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-Ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan

Ayako Shigeta

Affiliations Department of Respirology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-Ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan, Department of Advanced Medicine in Pulmonary Hypertension, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-Ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan

Toshihiko Sugiura

Affiliation Department of Respirology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-Ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan

Seiichiro Sakao

Affiliation Department of Respirology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-Ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan

Keiichi Ishida

Affiliation Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-Ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan

Koichiro Tatsumi

Affiliation Department of Respirology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-Ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AN NT KT. Performed the experiments: AN NT AS. Analyzed the data: AN NT AS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AN NT AS KI. Wrote the paper: AN NT TJ. Contributed to the data interpretation and critical review of the manuscript: TS SS KT.