Reviewer's report
Title:Ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel patients exhibit distinct abnormalities of
the gut microbiota
Version: 2Date:17 May 2010
Reviewer: Gunnar Loh
Reviewer's report:
As stated in my firs report, the major findings reported in the manuscript
"Ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel patients exhibit distinct abnormalities of the
gut microbiota" are of confirmative nature. Both changes in gut microbiota
composition in UC and IBS patients, including decreasing proportions of
Bacteroides spp. in IBD patients, have been reported previously. The
significance of the finding that UC and IBS patients differ in microbiota
composition is not clear to me. The conclusion that Bacteroides spp. are involved
in UC and IBD is based on non-significant differences in DGGE profiles between
the study subjects and the sequencing of very short 16S rRNA gene fragments
(~250bp) and therefore not necessarily valid.
Level of interest: An article of insufficient interest to warrant publication in a
scientific/medical journal
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Reviewer's report
Title:Ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel patients exhibit distinct abnormalities of
the gut microbiota
Version: 2Date:17 May 2010
Reviewer: Gunnar Loh
Reviewer's report:
As stated in my firs report, the major findings reported in the manuscript
"Ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel patients exhibit distinct abnormalities of the
gut microbiota" are of confirmative nature. Both changes in gut microbiota
composition in UC and IBS patients, including decreasing proportions of
Bacteroides spp. in IBD patients, have been reported previously. The
significance of the finding that UC and IBS patients differ in microbiota
composition is not clear to me. The conclusion that Bacteroides spp. are involved
in UC and IBD is based on non-significant differences in DGGE profiles between
the study subjects and the sequencing of very short 16S rRNA gene fragments
(~250bp) and therefore not necessarily valid.
Level of interest: An article of insufficient interest to warrant publication in a
scientific/medical journal
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel patients exhibit distinct abnormalities of
the gut microbiota
Version: 2Date:17 May 2010
Reviewer: Gunnar Loh
Reviewer's report:
As stated in my firs report, the major findings reported in the manuscript
"Ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel patients exhibit distinct abnormalities of the
gut microbiota" are of confirmative nature. Both changes in gut microbiota
composition in UC and IBS patients, including decreasing proportions of
Bacteroides spp. in IBD patients, have been reported previously. The
significance of the finding that UC and IBS patients differ in microbiota
composition is not clear to me. The conclusion that Bacteroides spp. are involved
in UC and IBD is based on non-significant differences in DGGE profiles between
the study subjects and the sequencing of very short 16S rRNA gene fragments
(~250bp) and therefore not necessarily valid.
Level of interest: An article of insufficient interest to warrant publication in a
scientific/medical journal
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
assistant