Funding

This study was partly supported by grants from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED; grant nos. JP24fk0210126, JP24fk0310501, JP24fk0210121, JP24fk0210112, JP24fk0210142, JP24fk0210111, JP24fk0310524, JP24fk0210123, JP24fk0210157, JP24fk0310518, JP24fk0210103, JP24fk0210104, JP24fk0210113, and JP24fk0210143).

Conflict of interest

Professor Naoya Sakamoto received lecture fees from Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and research grants from Gilead Sciences, Inc. and AbbVie, Inc. Dr. Goki Suda received research grants from Gilead Sciences. Takuya Sho, Masatsugu Ohara, Risako Kohya, Takashi Sasaki, Sonoe Yoshida, Shunichi Hosoda, Koji Ogawa, Takashi Kitagataya, Osamu Maehara, Shunsuke Ohnishi, Naoki Kawagishi, Mitsuteru Natsuizaka, Masato Nakai, Masaru Baba, Yoshiya Yamamoto, Yoko Tsukuda, Takashi Meguro, Ren Yamada, Tomoe Kobayashi, and Tomofumi Takagi declare that they have no conflicts of interest that might be relevant to the contents of this manuscript.

Ethics approval

The ethics committee of Hokkaido University Hospital verified that the study protocol (institutional review board no.: 023-0141) adhered to the ethical guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent to participate

Patients who provided written informed consent or did not express their refusal to participate were included in this study. Additionally, the ethics committee of Hokkaido University Hospital granted specific approval for the inclusion of patients who did not actively refuse to participate as an alternative to obtaining written informed consent.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data and material

This article includes all data generated or analyzed during this study, as well as the supplementary data. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author contributions

G.S. designed the study. T.Sho, G.S., and M.O. performed examinations and statistical analyses. T.S. and G.S. revised the manuscript. T.Sho, R.K., G.S., M.O., S.H., T.Sasaki, S.Y., K.O., T.K., O.M., Y.T., S.O., N.K., M.Natsuizaka, M.Nakai, M.B., Y.Y., T.M., R.Y., T.T., and T.K. collected samples and clinical data. M.Natsuizaka, K.O., and N.S. provided hepatological advice. N.S. revised the manuscript for the intellectual content.