About the Authors

Akihiro Higuchi

ahiguchi@sc.itc.keio.ac.jp

Affiliation Center for Integrated Medical Research, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

Kazuhiko Takahashi

Affiliation Department of Nutritional Biochemistry, School of Pharmacy, Hokkaido Pharmaceutical University, Hokkaido, Japan

Masaki Hirashima

Affiliation Research Department 1, The Chemo-Sero-Therapeutic Research Institute, Kumamoto, Japan

Tetsuya Kawakita

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

Kazuo Tsubota

Affiliations Center for Integrated Medical Research, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan, Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors do not have any duty for their research to Kowa Company except sharing products from their research. The authors have already applied for a patent on selenoprotein P to apply the treatment of dry eye ((WO 2006/137426) PROPHYLACTIC OR THERAPEUTIC AGENT FOR CORNEAL/CONJUNCTIVAL DISEASE). The authors do not have any relationship with Kowa Company for employment or consultancy. The authors declare that this does not alter their adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AH TK KT. Performed the experiments: AH. Analyzed the data: AH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AH KT MH. Wrote the paper: AH KT.