Conflicts of Interest
H.K.-H., H.I., Y.G., G.H., M.T., M.K. and K.M. are employees of the Yakult Central Institute, Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd. K.S. and H.N. were the employees at the time of this work. H.K.-H., H.I. and K.M. are inventors of a pending patent related to this work (patent applicant: Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan; application number: Japanese Patent Application No. 2023-152247; status of application: application).