About the Authors

Koei Ikeda

Contributed equally to this work with: Koei Ikeda, Kenji Shiraishi, Ayaka Yoshida

koei@cg7.so-net.ne.jp

Affiliation Departments of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan

Kenji Shiraishi

Contributed equally to this work with: Koei Ikeda, Kenji Shiraishi, Ayaka Yoshida

Affiliation Departments of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan

Ayaka Yoshida

Contributed equally to this work with: Koei Ikeda, Kenji Shiraishi, Ayaka Yoshida

Affiliation Departments of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan

Yusuke Shinchi

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Departments of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan

Mune Sanada

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Departments of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan

Yamato Motooka

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Departments of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan

Kosuke Fujino

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Departments of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan

Takeshi Mori

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Departments of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan

Makoto Suzuki

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Departments of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: KI MSu. Performed the experiments: KI KS AY. Analyzed the data: KI MSu. Wrote the paper: KI MSu. Other contributions: YS MSa YM KF TM.