About the Authors

Ryoji Yanai

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft

yanai@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan

Shang Chen

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan

Sho-Hei Uchi

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan

Tomoaki Nanri

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition

Affiliation Santen Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan

Kip M. Connor

Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Angiogenesis Laboratory, Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Kazuhiro Kimura

Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan

Competing Interests

Tomoaki Nanri is an employee of Santen Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and provided the lutein supplement obtained from Koyojapan (Tokyo, Japan) for the study. Santen Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. funded the study, but this does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.