Protective Effect of Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) Leaf Phenolic Acids Extract on IL-1β-Induced Barrier Injury of Caco-2 Monolayers
, Jian Sun 1,*, Lu Zhao 2,*, Fuxiang Niu 1, Ruixue Yue 1, Hong Zhu 1, Wenting Zhang 1 and Chen Ma 1
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Author(s)
The Manuscript is very interesting and is well-written. The scientific concept is sound and clear, and has been transcribed to a well-designed experimental work, investigated with a wide range of techniwues and methodology. The results, discussion and conclusion, all potentiate the concept and support its applicability as a potential candidtae for nutriceutical patent to overcome clinical disorders like IBS.
However, some limited tiny issues have to be taken into consideration:
1) Page 5: Please, replace the tiny numerical values in the chart (Fig. 1) with another in more visible font.
2) Page 6: the heading of table 1 should be adjusted and aligned to left
3) Page 11, Line 381, remove the extra "the" in .....the incresed the.... (remove the second the) .
4) Page 12, Line 388, use the past simple of show replace show with "showed" .
Author Response
Dear Reviewers and Editors:
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “ Protective effect of sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) leaf phenolic acids extract on cytokine-induced inflammatory Caco-2 monolayers” (Manuscript ID: processes-1956142). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments:
Point 1: Page 5: Please, replace the tiny numerical values in the chart (Fig. 1) with another in more visible font.
Response 1: Thanks for the reminder. We have replaced the tiny numerical values in Figure 1 with another in more visible font.
Point 2: Page 6: the heading of table 1 should be adjusted and aligned to left.
Response 2: According to your suggestion, we have adjusted the heading of table 1 and aligned to left.
Point 3: Page 11, Line 381, remove the extra "the" in .the incresed the.... (remove the second the) .
Response 3: Thank you for pointing out. We have removed the extra "the".
Point 4: Page 12, Line 388, use the past simple of show replace show with "showed".
Response 4: This error has been corrected with caution.
Reviewer 2 Report
Comment 1- Proofreading is required.
Comment 2- don't start sentences with abbreviations.
Comment 3- Please check and ensure the gene and protein names are in the correct format for genes and proteins as the genes should be in lowercase italics. Please correct all the formats for genes according to https://www.biosciencewriters.com/Guidelines-for-Formatting-Gene-and-Protein-Names.aspx
Comment 4- P-value must be uppercase and italic.
Comment 5- discussion is weak. it should be rewritten in a logical style.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers and Editors:
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “ Protective effect of sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) leaf phenolic acids extract on cytokine-induced inflammatory Caco-2 monolayers” (Manuscript ID: processes-1956142). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments：
Point 1: Proofreading is required.
Response 1: We carefully proofread our manuscript to eliminate all errors.
Point 2: don't start sentences with abbreviations.
Response 2: According to the reviewer’s comments, we have checked our manuscript and modified it.
Point 3: Please check and ensure the gene and protein names are in the correct format for genes and proteins as the genes should be in lowercase italics. Please correct all the formats for genes according to https://www.biosciencewriters.com/Guidelines-for-Formatting-Gene-and-Protein-Names.aspx.
Response 3: We have checked and modified mRNA and protein universal names in the revised manuscript.
Point 4: P-value must be uppercase and italic.
Response 4: P-value have be changed to uppercase and italic. Thank you so much for your consideration and kind help.
Point 5: discussion is weak. it should be rewritten in a logical style.
Response 5: We have revised the discussion section in the revised manuscript.
Reviewer 3 Report
Please find the attached file for comments
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewers and Editors:
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “ Protective effect of sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) leaf phenolic acids extract on cytokine-induced inflammatory Caco-2 monolayers” (Manuscript ID: processes-1956142). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:
Response to Reviewer 3 Comments
Point 1: In line 196, "Briefly" is misspelled.
Response 1: This error has been corrected with caution. Thank you for your reminder.
Point 2: It is necessary to add information about the MRM detection parameters (ion transitions, collision energy, etc.)
Response 2: HRMS data were recorded on a Q Exactive hybrid Q-Orbitrap mass spectrometer equipped with a heated ESI source (Thermo-Fisher Scientific) utilizing the single ion monitoring (SIM) MS acqui-sition methods (Materials and Methods 2.3). It will not cover MRM detection parameters.
Point 3: It is recommended that the illustration description of Fig2 and 3 should be brief.
Response 3: According to your suggestion, the illustration description of Fig 2 and 3 have been simplified.
Point 4: It is suggested to increase the stability related experiments of extracts to improve the accuracy of subsequent experiments.
Response 4: I'd like to thank the Reviewer for their precious advice. The experiment was repeated three times, and the results had good reproducibility. We have added additional remarks in Results 3.1. We thank the reviewer to point out the problem.
Point 5: It is suggested to increase relevant experiments on cell survival under fluorescence microscope, so as to get more intuitive effects on cell viability.
Response 5: We thank Reviewer 3 for this suggestion, which is much of help for us to think about cell survival for our work. According to your suggestion, the effect of the compound on cell morphology was observed by microscopy, and the results were consistent with our experimental results on cell viability. According to your suggestion, in our future studies, trypan blue staining or Annexin-V/PI double staining will be used to study the function of the compounds, which will be of great guiding significance to our work.
Point 6: The discussion part can be adjusted to be more concise and clear.
Response 6: According to your suggestion, we have revised the discussion section.
Point 7: Line 41, confusing punctuation.
Response 7: We have corrected this error. Thank you for your advice.
Point 8: Line 160, space between data and units for 37°C deleted.
Response 8: We have deleted space between data and units for 37°C. Thank you for your advice.
Point 9: Line 190, according should spell with the first letter capitalized.
Response 9: We have corrected this error.
Point 10: Line 196, refly should spell with the first letter capitalized.
Response 10: This error has been corrected.
Point 11: Line 356, cm2 incorrectly stated.
Response 11: We have corrected this error.
Point 12: Line 482, reference 13 is incorrectly formatted.
Response 12: We have changed the format of reference 13 in the revised manuscript.
