About the Authors

Koji Kawata

Affiliations Aureo Science Co., Ltd., Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, Aureo Co., Ltd., Kimitsu, Chiba, Japan

Atsushi Iwai

iwai-atsushi@aureo.co.jp

Affiliations Aureo Science Co., Ltd., Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, Aureo Co., Ltd., Kimitsu, Chiba, Japan

Daisuke Muramatsu

Affiliation Aureo Science Co., Ltd., Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Shiho Aoki

Affiliation Aureo Science Co., Ltd., Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Hirofumi Uchiyama

Affiliation Aureo Co., Ltd., Kimitsu, Chiba, Japan

Mitsuyasu Okabe

Affiliation Aureo Co., Ltd., Kimitsu, Chiba, Japan

Sumio Hayakawa

Affiliation Division of Signaling in Cancer and Immunology, Institute for Genetic Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

Akinori Takaoka

Affiliation Division of Signaling in Cancer and Immunology, Institute for Genetic Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

Tadaaki Miyazaki

Affiliation Department of Probiotics Immunology, Institute for Genetic Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

Competing Interests

This study was funded by by Aureo Co., Ltd., and Aureo-Science Co., Ltd. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. No additional external funding was received for this study. Koji Kawata, Daisuke Muramatsu, Shiho Aoki, and Atsushi Iwai are employees of Aureo-Science Co., Ltd., Sapporo, Japan, and Koji Kawata, Mitsuyasu Okabe and Atsushi Iwai are employees of Aureo Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. The results presented in this manuscript are patent pending in Japan (application number: 2013-031803), and the β-glucan-containing Aureobasidium pullulans-cultured fluid and its derivatives are marketed by Aureo-Science Co., Ltd., Sapporo, Japan, and by Aureo Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. There are no other 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: KK AI DM TM. Performed the experiments: KK DM SA. Analyzed the data: KK AI DM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MO SH AT HU. Wrote the paper: KK AI.