Reviewer's report
Title:Sphered cell subpopulations with cancer stem cell properties in human
hepatoma cell lines
Version: 2Date:21 April 2011
Reviewer: Nicholas barker
Reviewer's report:
Minor Essential Revisions:
1) The inclusion of data demonstrating resistance to a range of therapeutic
agents certainly strengthens the manuscript. However, I still think important
mechanistic insight would be provided by a simple analysis of candidate CSC
marker expression in the spheres following treatment. Is there selection for CSC
phenotypes within the spheres following treatment, as has been suggested as a
contributing factor in tumor relapse in patients?
2) It is also surprising that no enrichment for CD133 was seen using IF in the
spheres, despite this being evidenced by Western blot in figure 4B. Does this
mean that CD133 isn't a good CSC marker? This should be discussed.
3) Please quantify the Western blots in Figure 5 - this is much easier for the
reader to interpret.
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:Sphered cell subpopulations with cancer stem cell properties in human
hepatoma cell lines
Version: 2Date:21 April 2011
Reviewer: Nicholas barker
Reviewer's report:
Minor Essential Revisions:
1) The inclusion of data demonstrating resistance to a range of therapeutic
agents certainly strengthens the manuscript. However, I still think important
mechanistic insight would be provided by a simple analysis of candidate CSC
marker expression in the spheres following treatment. Is there selection for CSC
phenotypes within the spheres following treatment, as has been suggested as a
contributing factor in tumor relapse in patients?
2) It is also surprising that no enrichment for CD133 was seen using IF in the
spheres, despite this being evidenced by Western blot in figure 4B. Does this
mean that CD133 isn't a good CSC marker? This should be discussed.
3) Please quantify the Western blots in Figure 5 - this is much easier for the
reader to interpret.
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:Sphered cell subpopulations with cancer stem cell properties in human
hepatoma cell lines
Version: 2Date:21 April 2011
Reviewer: Nicholas barker
Reviewer's report:
Minor Essential Revisions:
1) The inclusion of data demonstrating resistance to a range of therapeutic
agents certainly strengthens the manuscript. However, I still think important
mechanistic insight would be provided by a simple analysis of candidate CSC
marker expression in the spheres following treatment. Is there selection for CSC
phenotypes within the spheres following treatment, as has been suggested as a
contributing factor in tumor relapse in patients?
2) It is also surprising that no enrichment for CD133 was seen using IF in the
spheres, despite this being evidenced by Western blot in figure 4B. Does this
mean that CD133 isn't a good CSC marker? This should be discussed.
3) Please quantify the Western blots in Figure 5 - this is much easier for the
reader to interpret.
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