Reviewer's report 
 DIFFERENTIAL GENE EXPRESSION IN THE MURINE GASTRIC FUNDUS LACKING Title: 
INTERSTITIAL CELLS OF CAJAL 
Authors: 
Yataro Daigo ( yatarod@hotmail.com )
Dr Ichiro Takayama ( ichirot@is.icc.u-tokai.ac.jp )
Sean M Ward ( sean@physio.unr.edu )
Kenton M Sanders ( kent@physio.unr.edu )
Masayuki A Fujino ( mfujino@res.yamanashi-med.ac.jp )
 1  5 Feb 2003 Version: Date: 
 Jan D. Huizinga Reviewer: 
 A paper whose findings are important to those with closely related research Level of interest: 
interests 
 Other (see below) Advice on publication: 
The paper by Daigo et al. used mouse gene arrays to compare fundic tissue from control mice and 
mice that do not have the cell type IC-IM. The objective obviously was to use this technique to learn 
more about the role of IC-IM, and the consequence of the W mutation in general. Several genes 
were found to be upregulated or downregulated and a few of these changes were confirmed by 
semi-quantitative RT-PCR. Unfortunately, the authors could not find yet any physiological relevance 
to any of these changes. 
Since large gene arrays are notoriously unreliable, a point could be made that only those data 
confirmed by RT-PCR are worthy of publishing. 
Although the paper is of limited interest at this moment, it may well be that if more knowledge 
becomes available about the genes that are up or downregulated, our understanding of the WWv 
mouse which is an important model for gut motor function, will increase. 
Competing interests: 
None declared. 
Reviewer's report 
 DIFFERENTIAL GENE EXPRESSION IN THE MURINE GASTRIC FUNDUS LACKING Title: 
INTERSTITIAL CELLS OF CAJAL 
Authors: 
Yataro Daigo ( yatarod@hotmail.com )
Dr Ichiro Takayama ( ichirot@is.icc.u-tokai.ac.jp )
Sean M Ward ( sean@physio.unr.edu )
Kenton M Sanders ( kent@physio.unr.edu )
Masayuki A Fujino ( mfujino@res.yamanashi-med.ac.jp )
 1  5 Feb 2003 Version: Date: 
 Jan D. Huizinga Reviewer: 
 A paper whose findings are important to those with closely related research Level of interest: 
interests 
 Other (see below) Advice on publication: 
The paper by Daigo et al. used mouse gene arrays to compare fundic tissue from control mice and 
mice that do not have the cell type IC-IM. The objective obviously was to use this technique to learn 
more about the role of IC-IM, and the consequence of the W mutation in general. Several genes 
were found to be upregulated or downregulated and a few of these changes were confirmed by 
semi-quantitative RT-PCR. Unfortunately, the authors could not find yet any physiological relevance 
to any of these changes. 
Since large gene arrays are notoriously unreliable, a point could be made that only those data 
confirmed by RT-PCR are worthy of publishing. 
Although the paper is of limited interest at this moment, it may well be that if more knowledge 
becomes available about the genes that are up or downregulated, our understanding of the WWv 
mouse which is an important model for gut motor function, will increase. 
Competing interests: 
None declared. 
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report 
 DIFFERENTIAL GENE EXPRESSION IN THE MURINE GASTRIC FUNDUS LACKING Title: 
INTERSTITIAL CELLS OF CAJAL 
Authors: 
Yataro Daigo ( yatarod@hotmail.com )
Dr Ichiro Takayama ( ichirot@is.icc.u-tokai.ac.jp )
Sean M Ward ( sean@physio.unr.edu )
Kenton M Sanders ( kent@physio.unr.edu )
Masayuki A Fujino ( mfujino@res.yamanashi-med.ac.jp )
 1  5 Feb 2003 Version: Date: 
 Jan D. Huizinga Reviewer: 
 A paper whose findings are important to those with closely related research Level of interest: 
interests 
 Other (see below) Advice on publication: 
The paper by Daigo et al. used mouse gene arrays to compare fundic tissue from control mice and 
mice that do not have the cell type IC-IM. The objective obviously was to use this technique to learn 
more about the role of IC-IM, and the consequence of the W mutation in general. Several genes 
were found to be upregulated or downregulated and a few of these changes were confirmed by 
semi-quantitative RT-PCR. Unfortunately, the authors could not find yet any physiological relevance 
to any of these changes. 
Since large gene arrays are notoriously unreliable, a point could be made that only those data 
confirmed by RT-PCR are worthy of publishing. 
Although the paper is of limited interest at this moment, it may well be that if more knowledge 
becomes available about the genes that are up or downregulated, our understanding of the WWv 
mouse which is an important model for gut motor function, will increase. 
Competing interests: 
None declared. 
assistant