Reviewer's report
Title:Fucoidan present in brown algae induces apoptosis of HT-29 human colon
cancer cells
Version: 1Date:7 June 2010
Reviewer: Nancy Turner
Reviewer's report:
General comments:
This is a well-written paper that provides a thorough evaluation of apoptosis
induction in colon cancer cells by fucoidan. However, there are a few issues that
need to be resolved and discussed further by the authors.
Major compulsory revisions
1. The use of serum-deprivation medium in order to stabilize cells in the cell cycle
is completely understandable. However, the authors must describe why they
continued to use serum-deprivation medium during the treatment phase of the
experiment. This alone will severely limit cell growth and promote apoptosis. How
are you able to establish and compare the effect that fucoidan would have in
vivo, in a non-limiting condition, to the effects reported here?
2. Hopefully, the final figures will be of higher quality that those included for
review. As they are currently presented it is very hard to read the text and
numbers.
Minor essential revisions
1. The protein levels of survivin do not decrease in a dose-dependent manner (p
13, l 13-14).
2. According to the author’s citations, this isn’t the first paper documenting the
effect of fucoidan on colon cancer cell lines and newer references for in vivo
data, and there is information concerning its effects on colitis. As such, they need
to remove their assertion that it is the first throughout the paper.
3. What are the differences in the data shown in figure 2, panel C for living cells
and the data in figure 1?
Discretionary revisions
Specific comments:
Page Line
5 3 It is the second leading cause of cancer death when the data for both
genders are combined, which is what the sentence suggests the authors are
referring to.
5 11 I am not sure what the authors means by “reverse progression to invasive
cancer”.
9 8 You need to indicate the FBS was charcoal-stripped.
9 23 Instead of saying “as described above” throughout the paper, give us the
specifics of the treatment regimen for each purpose.
10 13 You need to indicate the concentration of fucoidan used, time of
administration, etc.
29 12 This is true, except for caspase 3, in which 1 is set at 5 µg/mL.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests'.
Reviewer's report
Title:Fucoidan present in brown algae induces apoptosis of HT-29 human colon
cancer cells
Version: 1Date:7 June 2010
Reviewer: Nancy Turner
Reviewer's report:
General comments:
This is a well-written paper that provides a thorough evaluation of apoptosis
induction in colon cancer cells by fucoidan. However, there are a few issues that
need to be resolved and discussed further by the authors.
Major compulsory revisions
1. The use of serum-deprivation medium in order to stabilize cells in the cell cycle
is completely understandable. However, the authors must describe why they
continued to use serum-deprivation medium during the treatment phase of the
experiment. This alone will severely limit cell growth and promote apoptosis. How
are you able to establish and compare the effect that fucoidan would have in
vivo, in a non-limiting condition, to the effects reported here?
2. Hopefully, the final figures will be of higher quality that those included for
review. As they are currently presented it is very hard to read the text and
numbers.
Minor essential revisions
1. The protein levels of survivin do not decrease in a dose-dependent manner (p
13, l 13-14).
2. According to the author’s citations, this isn’t the first paper documenting the
effect of fucoidan on colon cancer cell lines and newer references for in vivo
data, and there is information concerning its effects on colitis. As such, they need
to remove their assertion that it is the first throughout the paper.
3. What are the differences in the data shown in figure 2, panel C for living cells
and the data in figure 1?
Discretionary revisions
Specific comments:
Page Line
5 3 It is the second leading cause of cancer death when the data for both
genders are combined, which is what the sentence suggests the authors are
referring to.
5 11 I am not sure what the authors means by “reverse progression to invasive
cancer”.
9 8 You need to indicate the FBS was charcoal-stripped.
9 23 Instead of saying “as described above” throughout the paper, give us the
specifics of the treatment regimen for each purpose.
10 13 You need to indicate the concentration of fucoidan used, time of
administration, etc.
29 12 This is true, except for caspase 3, in which 1 is set at 5 µg/mL.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests'.
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Fucoidan present in brown algae induces apoptosis of HT-29 human colon
cancer cells
Version: 1Date:7 June 2010
Reviewer: Nancy Turner
Reviewer's report:
General comments:
This is a well-written paper that provides a thorough evaluation of apoptosis
induction in colon cancer cells by fucoidan. However, there are a few issues that
need to be resolved and discussed further by the authors.
Major compulsory revisions
1. The use of serum-deprivation medium in order to stabilize cells in the cell cycle
is completely understandable. However, the authors must describe why they
continued to use serum-deprivation medium during the treatment phase of the
experiment. This alone will severely limit cell growth and promote apoptosis. How
are you able to establish and compare the effect that fucoidan would have in
vivo, in a non-limiting condition, to the effects reported here?
2. Hopefully, the final figures will be of higher quality that those included for
review. As they are currently presented it is very hard to read the text and
numbers.
Minor essential revisions
1. The protein levels of survivin do not decrease in a dose-dependent manner (p
13, l 13-14).
2. According to the author’s citations, this isn’t the first paper documenting the
effect of fucoidan on colon cancer cell lines and newer references for in vivo
data, and there is information concerning its effects on colitis. As such, they need
to remove their assertion that it is the first throughout the paper.
3. What are the differences in the data shown in figure 2, panel C for living cells
and the data in figure 1?
Discretionary revisions
Specific comments:
Page Line
5 3 It is the second leading cause of cancer death when the data for both
genders are combined, which is what the sentence suggests the authors are
referring to.
5 11 I am not sure what the authors means by “reverse progression to invasive
cancer”.
9 8 You need to indicate the FBS was charcoal-stripped.
9 23 Instead of saying “as described above” throughout the paper, give us the
specifics of the treatment regimen for each purpose.
10 13 You need to indicate the concentration of fucoidan used, time of
administration, etc.
29 12 This is true, except for caspase 3, in which 1 is set at 5 µg/mL.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests'.
assistant