About the Authors

Ryoichiro Nishibayashi

Affiliation Laboratory of Animal Science, Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan

Ryo Inoue

r-inoue@kpu.ac.jp

Affiliation Laboratory of Animal Science, Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan

Yuri Harada

Affiliation Laboratory of Animal Science, Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan

Takumi Watanabe

Affiliation Department of Functional Foods, Combi Corporation, Saitama, Saitama, Japan

Yuko Makioka

Affiliation Department of Functional Foods, Combi Corporation, Saitama, Saitama, Japan

Kazunari Ushida

Affiliation Laboratory of Animal Science, Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests. This work was partly supported by a grant from Combi Corporation, the employer of Takumi Watanabe and Yuko Makioka. Combi Corporation is selling the product containing Enterococcus faecalis strain EC-12. There are no further 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, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RN RI KU. Performed the experiments: RN RI YM YH. Analyzed the data: RN RI KU. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TW YM. Wrote the paper: RN RI KU.