Review Reports
- P. Robinson Muller1,
- Tae Jin Lee2 and
- Wenbo Zhi2
- et al.
Reviewer 1: Francesca Oliviero Reviewer 2: Samuel Schick
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
It’s not clear what was the diagnosis of the NON- OA patients.
Why did they have an effusion? Did they have an arthropathy, if so, which one? It is important to well define this control population.
How was OA patients diagnosed? (criteria)
The Authors should describe the characteristics of these synovial fluids including white blood cell count. Was some sample positive to calcium pyrophosphate crystals?
Figures: Student t-test is a parametric test. Authors have to report that the parameters considered were normally distributed. Otherwise a non-parametric test should be performed.
Patients’ age seems relatively low (mean around 50) and some of them were submitted to TKA. This implies that they have a severe OA? Why the kellgren-lawrence score is not reported?
Without a male control group, the Authors cannot state any sex-specific results. Discussion should be modified and protein changes cannot be referred only to pathological process in female OA patients.
Minor
Line 87: mean age I suppose
Line 89: SF samples rather than tissue samples
Line 196: Several modern techniques, ELISA and electrophoresis are not really modern
Line 283: remove conclusions
Author Response
Attached
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Methods: going forward, please obtain informed consent for surgical specimens.
Results: please cite line 143-144
how were subjects age matched? what demographic information was collected on subjects? it would be nice to see a table 1 demographics chart
Conclusion: please remove conclusion placeholder
Author Response
Attached
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The Authors should modify the text besides answering to the reviewer. OA patients and controls have to be clearly defined in patient samples section.
The diagnostic criteria for OA are missing (ACR? EULAR? others
?)
Again: Without a male control group, the Authors cannot state any sex-specific results. SUMMARY "The protein content of female synovial fluid is altered in OA patients, likely giving insight into 28 the gender-specific pathophysiology"
Author Response
Included as suggested.