Reviewer's report
Title:Fibroblast activation protein-alpha-expressing fibroblasts promote the
progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
Version:1Date:25 May 2015
Reviewer: Julia Tchou
Reviewer's report:
This study sought to understand the tumor promoting role of fibroblast activation
protein (FAP) in pancreatic cancer. The authors evaluated FAP expression by
IHC in a panel of human pancreatic cancer (n=48) and correlated clinical
outcome with moderate and strong FAP (+) IHC staining defined arbitrarily by the
number of stromal cells staining positive by IHC. The authors also reported that
FAP expressing NIH3T3 fibroblasts promoted pancreatic cancer cell invasion
using an modified chamber invasion assays. None of these findings are novel.
The authors did demonstrate that co-culture of FAP(+) NIH3T3 fibroblasts with
pancreatic cancer cells decrease proportion of cells G0/G1 phase and increased
proportion of S/G2/M phase is associated with phosphorylation of retinoblastoma
protein. The study is descriptive and additional experiments are necessary to
further dissect this observation such as:
Major compulsory revisions
1. Are conditioned media from FAP+ NIH 3T3 sufficient to drive the increased
level of P-Rb?
2. Gene expression profile differences in FAP+ NIH 3T3 vs. FAP- NIH 3T3 to
identify candidate mediators of the Rb phosphorylation.
3. Will knockdown of Rb abrogate the effects of FAP+ NIH3T3?
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
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:Fibroblast activation protein-alpha-expressing fibroblasts promote the
progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
Version:1Date:25 May 2015
Reviewer: Julia Tchou
Reviewer's report:
This study sought to understand the tumor promoting role of fibroblast activation
protein (FAP) in pancreatic cancer. The authors evaluated FAP expression by
IHC in a panel of human pancreatic cancer (n=48) and correlated clinical
outcome with moderate and strong FAP (+) IHC staining defined arbitrarily by the
number of stromal cells staining positive by IHC. The authors also reported that
FAP expressing NIH3T3 fibroblasts promoted pancreatic cancer cell invasion
using an modified chamber invasion assays. None of these findings are novel.
The authors did demonstrate that co-culture of FAP(+) NIH3T3 fibroblasts with
pancreatic cancer cells decrease proportion of cells G0/G1 phase and increased
proportion of S/G2/M phase is associated with phosphorylation of retinoblastoma
protein. The study is descriptive and additional experiments are necessary to
further dissect this observation such as:
Major compulsory revisions
1. Are conditioned media from FAP+ NIH 3T3 sufficient to drive the increased
level of P-Rb?
2. Gene expression profile differences in FAP+ NIH 3T3 vs. FAP- NIH 3T3 to
identify candidate mediators of the Rb phosphorylation.
3. Will knockdown of Rb abrogate the effects of FAP+ NIH3T3?
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
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:Fibroblast activation protein-alpha-expressing fibroblasts promote the
progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
Version:1Date:25 May 2015
Reviewer: Julia Tchou
Reviewer's report:
This study sought to understand the tumor promoting role of fibroblast activation
protein (FAP) in pancreatic cancer. The authors evaluated FAP expression by
IHC in a panel of human pancreatic cancer (n=48) and correlated clinical
outcome with moderate and strong FAP (+) IHC staining defined arbitrarily by the
number of stromal cells staining positive by IHC. The authors also reported that
FAP expressing NIH3T3 fibroblasts promoted pancreatic cancer cell invasion
using an modified chamber invasion assays. None of these findings are novel.
The authors did demonstrate that co-culture of FAP(+) NIH3T3 fibroblasts with
pancreatic cancer cells decrease proportion of cells G0/G1 phase and increased
proportion of S/G2/M phase is associated with phosphorylation of retinoblastoma
protein. The study is descriptive and additional experiments are necessary to
further dissect this observation such as:
Major compulsory revisions
1. Are conditioned media from FAP+ NIH 3T3 sufficient to drive the increased
level of P-Rb?
2. Gene expression profile differences in FAP+ NIH 3T3 vs. FAP- NIH 3T3 to
identify candidate mediators of the Rb phosphorylation.
3. Will knockdown of Rb abrogate the effects of FAP+ NIH3T3?
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
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
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