About the Authors

Tadakazu Hisamatsu

hisamachi@a7.keio.jp (T.Hisamatsu); thibi@sc.itc.keio.ac.jp (T.Hibi)

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

Susumu Okamoto

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

Masaki Hashimoto

Affiliation Institute of Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories, Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Kawasaki, Japan

Takahiko Muramatsu

Affiliation Institute of Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories, Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Kawasaki, Japan

Ayatoshi Andou

Affiliation Institute of Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories, Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Kawasaki, Japan

Michihide Uo

Affiliation Institute of Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories, Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Kawasaki, Japan

Mina T. Kitazume

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

Katsuyoshi Matsuoka

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

Tomoharu Yajima

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

Nagamu Inoue

Affiliation Center for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

Takanori Kanai

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

Haruhiko Ogata

Affiliation Center for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

Yasushi Iwao

Affiliation Center for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

Minoru Yamakado

Affiliation Center for Multiphasic Health Testing and Services, Mitsui Memorial Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

Ryosei Sakai

Affiliation Institute of Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories, Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Kawasaki, Japan

Nobukazu Ono

Affiliation Institute of Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories, Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Kawasaki, Japan

Toshihiko Ando

Affiliation Institute of Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories, Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Kawasaki, Japan

Manabu Suzuki

Affiliation Institute of Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories, Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Kawasaki, Japan

Toshifumi Hibi

hisamachi@a7.keio.jp (T.Hisamatsu); thibi@sc.itc.keio.ac.jp (T.Hibi)

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

Competing Interests

MH, TM, AA, MU, RS, NO, TA, and MS are employees of Ajinomoto, Co., Inc. T.Hisamatsu, SO, KM, TY, NI, TK, HO, YI, and T.Hibi received research grants from Ajinomoto, Co., Inc. TM, AA, T.Hibi, T.Hisamatsu, SO, RS, NO, MS, TA and MH have applied for patents for plasma amino-acid profiling using multivariate analysis as a diagnostic tool for IBD (WO2008/090941). This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS One policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: T.Hisamatsu AA RS NO MS. Performed the experiments: T.Hisamatsu MH AA RS NO TA MS. Analyzed the data: MH TM AA MU. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SO MK KM TY NI TK HO YI MY. Wrote the paper: T.Hisamatsu. Proofread and approved the manuscript: T.Hisamatsu SO MH TM AA MU MK KM TY NI TK HO YI MY RS NO TA MS T.Hibi.