About the Authors

Sohei Arase

sohei-arase@yakult.co.jp

Affiliation Yakult Central Institute, Kunitachi-shi, Tokyo, Japan

Yohei Watanabe

Affiliation Yakult Central Institute, Kunitachi-shi, Tokyo, Japan

Hiromi Setoyama

Affiliation Yakult Central Institute, Kunitachi-shi, Tokyo, Japan

Noriko Nagaoka

Affiliation Yakult Central Institute, Kunitachi-shi, Tokyo, Japan

Mitsuhisa Kawai

Affiliation Yakult Central Institute, Kunitachi-shi, Tokyo, Japan

Satoshi Matsumoto

Affiliation Yakult Central Institute, Kunitachi-shi, Tokyo, Japan

Competing Interests

All authors are paid employees of Yakult Central Institute. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SA MK SM. Performed the experiments: SA HS NN SM. Analyzed the data: SA SM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SA YW HS NN MK. Wrote the paper: SA SM.