Anti-Aging Effects of Polyoxometalates on Skin
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This manuscript investigates the antiaging effects of polyoxometalates (VB2 and VB3). The authors demonstrate polyoxometalates can regulate the expression of cytoprotective molecules and ameliorate the adverse responses of normal cutaneous fibroblasts to oxidative stress. Overall this work shows the great potential of VB2 and VB3 as antiaging agents. Below please find my comments and suggestion on this manuscript:
- This study only evaluates the antiaging effect of VBs in human dermal fibroblasts. Does it also have similar effects in other cell lines or animal models?
- Could the authors please provide the exact p-values in figure 2?
- Whether VBs have a toxic effect on cells?
- “H2O2 treated cell viability significantly reduced, whereas intracellular ROS production increased.” This sentence in the abstract is not much relevant to the subject of this study. Should it be removed or rephrased?
- In the methods section, the sample size of each group and the information of the comparisons and statistics are not clearly described.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Reviewer's Comments
Fujinami et al. investigated the anti-aging effects of two types of polyoxometalates (VB2 and VB3) on skin in this paper. The results showed that VB2 and VB3 markedly inhibited oxidative stress induced by H2O2 and AGEs in experiments using NHDF, indicating that the mechanism of their anti-aging effects may involve suppression of ROS production and expression of anti-aging-related genes. Since this paper deeply examines the anti-aging effects of VB2 and VB3 using various indices and suggests their potential as anti-aging agents, I believe it will provide useful information to the readers of Applied Science. However, the following minor revisions are needed.
1. The hydroxyl radical (・OH) with the strongest oxidizing power is produced from H2O2. The results show that VB2 and VB3 inhibit the production of Total ROS. Please comment on which ROS among the ROSs they may inhibit.
2. VB2 and VB3 restore the viability of NHDF suppressed by H2O2, so I don't think there are any safety issues, but please comment on any information regarding the safety of these compounds.
3. Please comment that this paper has limitations because it is the result of in vitro experiments using cultured cells, and that in vivo experiments are necessary in the future.
4. Please comment on the future prospects from the standpoint of development of industrial use of VB2 and VB3 as cosmetics.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
