Cytoprotective Effects of Taurine on Heat-Induced Bovine Mammary Epithelial Cells In Vitro
, Tingting Li 1, Yan Yu 1, Ningcong Zhou 2, Huijuan Kou 2, Yingying Guo 1, Liang Yang 1 and Peishi Yan 1,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This is an interesting study on the effects of taurine on heat-induced bovine mammary epithelial cells in vitro.
The methodology seems to be appropriate including study design, experimentation, and result interpretation. Graphical presentations are also of very good quality and very easy to understand. Moreover, statistics are very well performed. The statistical software cited is unclear. Is it SPSS or StatSoft? The main problem of this manuscript is poor English language. Too many grammar and syntax errors make the manuscript difficult to follow. The authors are strongly advised to seek professional language editing. Some of these errors are presented below:
Title: in vitro as well as all Latin words and expressions should be written in italics.
Line 9: induces instead of induce
Line 11: a study which/that shows or showing instead of shows
Line 12: suffering from
Line 13: the effects
Line 18: The comma after apoptosis is not needed
Line 21: antioxidant
Line 32: with the thermoneutral group
Line 37: towards enhancing functions of the mammary..
Line 42: the colon after as should be omitted
Line 44: a taurine additive was found or was reported
Line 47: dysfunction
Line 49: has documented any effects
Line 50: determine/investigate instead of research the
Line 65: a space is missing after the colon
Line 69: recovered at instead of in
Line 78: maintained
Line 85: and rinsed three times with buffer…
Line 101: of PI in each tube
Line 127: prior to adding the secondary antibodies
Line 129: FUJIFILM
Line 148: the effects
Line 150: a normal shape
Line 159: play a role in …. that triggers
Line 160: The heat shock
Fig. 2 increasement does not exist
Line 171: by a … microscope
Line 180: of the
Line 181: the antioxidant
Line 182: the same
Line 185: groups and group
Line 186: marked difference
Line 189: remove comma after while
Fig 4: improved the activities of heat-induced
Line 217: that can
Line 222: there are no
Line 226: heat-induced
Line 228: Furthermore, …. a considerable
Line 229: the effects
Line 233: the heat
Line 248: omit of after from
Line 249: insights into
Line 258: in the present study
Line 261: function
Line 264: can trigger
Line 265: stress induces… finally necrosis
Line 268: the ratio
Line 269: Furthermore
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Major concerns
- Grammars should be corrected thoroughly and writings should be improved. Here are examples in Abstract
Ex. line 9, widely accepted that heat stress induces a reduction in milk production and impairs the health in cows.
Ex. line 11-12, However, there is no study showing the functions of taurine in MAC-T (a bovine mammary epithelial cell line) cells under heat shock.
Ex. line 12, Therefore, different treatment concentrations of taurine (10
13 mM, 50 mM, 100 mM) were tested to determine its effects on heat-induced MAC-T cells.
Ex. line 14, The results showed that, taurine protected the cell against heat-induced damages as shown by morphological observations in conjunction with significantly suppressed mRNA levels of HSF1 and HSP90 expressions.
Ex. line 20, as compared with the HS group.
Ex. line 20-22, In summary, taurine improves antioxidat and anti-apoptosis ability of MAC-T cells and thereby alleviates damages of cells against heat insults.
- The authors need to justify why BMECs were used a model in the study. Any in vivo studies or with primary cells?
- How the authors concluded that only HSF1 and HSP90 mediate the cytoprotective effects of taurine? Any genetic intervention by siRNA or pharmacological inhibitor treatments ? Also, most of the results are real-time PCR analyses, at least HSF1 and HSP90 results should be presented with Western blots results? A functional assay such as HSF translocation in gel shift analysis may be required.
- The time course of HSF1 and HSP90 expression should be examined again, since cell functions such as death comes out after a variety of gene expression networks. Usually, most cells respond to treatment with mRNA expression after 3 hrs and with protein changes after 5-6 hrs.
- Figure 3, the authors need to show at least a function assay with mitochondria such as complex activity in electron transport chain, not merely in morphology.
- The authors need to explain the mechanisms of taurine to promote anti-oxidative activities, by the antioxidant activity of taurine itself per se, or through other pathway to influence gene expression in anti-oxidative defense?
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
- Grammars should be corrected thoroughly and writings should be checked and improved again. Here are examples in Abstract and Introduction
Line 12, Studies have been yet conducted to shown
Line 18-20, Meanwhile, mitochondrial damages (morphology and complex Ⅰ activity) resulting from heat exposure were mitigated.
Line 22, and cleaved
Line 23, and thereby
Line 33-34, including increased somatic cell counts and metabolic disorders occurrence.
Line 36, is also changed.
Line 38, Accumulating evidences indicate…
Line 39, decrease of cell viability, increase of oxidative stress and cell apoptosis.
Line 46, Extensive researches have shown
Line 48 in respect to its..
Line 49, as one study showed markedly hampered increases by taurine treatment in the expression of Bax,…..
Line 51, , taurine as a dietary supplement has been reported to have anti-inflammatory effects [17, 18] and as a treatment in intractable diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease [19] .
Line 53, mitigators. Therefore, it is very plausible to hypothesize that taurine….
Line 56, documented regarding to any effect of taurine on…
Line 60, damage in MAC-T cells.
- In Figure 1 and 2, what is control (C), before heat stress or a parallel without heat stress to 24 hr?
- Figure 4 title, “Taurine improves the….” and Figure 5 title “Taurine pretreatments attenuate…”
