Occurrence of Human Defensins and S100 Proteins in Head and Neck Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) Entities: hBD3 and S100A4 as Potential Biomarkers to Evaluate Successful Surgical Therapy
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Particularly, I listed the following comments in detail here.
Major concerns:
Please delete point in the end of Title.
In abstract, the author needs to mention the ingredients of methods, and materials. Also, the finding of the assay could be added step by step based on material and method. Besides, all of the names and terms should be completely mentioned for the first time.
In introduction, some sentences lack reference. For example, “Basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) are well-recognized as the most common malignancy in man – although cancer registries do not frequently collect data on this skin cancer.”, “BCCs are slow-growing lesions of epidermal basaloid cells. Although this tumor entity only very rarely metastasizes, nevertheless BCCs can cause severe tissue destructions because of local invasion.”, “Having in mind that most of the BCCs occur in the head and neck region it appears to be of tremendous importance that the resections are performed under avoidance of unnecessary sacrifice of healthy tissue on one hand but also under avoidance of re-resections after incomplete primary resections on the other hand.”, “Human defensins belong to the large group of AMPs which are involved in host defense. Besides this important function in innate immunity it has become apparent over the last years that defensins play various relevant roles in further cellular processes, like inflammation, wound healing, proliferation and differentiation. There are two subgroups of human defensins called α- (DEFAs) and β-defensins (hBDs).” and so on. All of the names and terms should be completely mentioned for the first time in text and so on.
In the Methods,
Details and references for all protocols must be added.
In discussion, discuss your results before relating them to the results of other published work.
Precise conclusion as it’s too short in its current form. Add a significant statement that must be structured as “what was offered by authors? Do the authors have more thoughts on this field?
Author Response
Comments to reviewer1
Dear reviewer,
we are very grateful for all your comments and suggestions which we really appreciate. They were very helpful and have definitely improved our manuscript.
Major concerns:
Please delete point in the end of Title.
Our comments: we have deleted it.
In abstract, the author needs to mention the ingredients of methods, and materials. Also, the finding of the assay could be added step by step based on material and method. Besides, all of the names and terms should be completely mentioned for the first time.
Our comments: We have added more information and changed names and terms.
In introduction, some sentences lack reference. For example, “Basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) are well-recognized as the most common malignancy in man – although cancer registries do not frequently collect data on this skin cancer.”, “BCCs are slow-growing lesions of epidermal basaloid cells. Although this tumor entity only very rarely metastasizes, nevertheless BCCs can cause severe tissue destructions because of local invasion.”, “Having in mind that most of the BCCs occur in the head and neck region it appears to be of tremendous importance that the resections are performed under avoidance of unnecessary sacrifice of healthy tissue on one hand but also under avoidance of re-resections after incomplete primary resections on the other hand.”, “Human defensins belong to the large group of AMPs which are involved in host defense. Besides this important function in innate immunity it has become apparent over the last years that defensins play various relevant roles in further cellular processes, like inflammation, wound healing, proliferation and differentiation. There are two subgroups of human defensins called α- (DEFAs) and β-defensins (hBDs).” and so on. All of the names and terms should be completely mentioned for the first time in text and so on.
Our comments: we have put corresponding references directly behind the sentences.
In the Methods,
Details and references for all protocols must be added.
Our comments: we have added references. Details for antibody dilution and source incl. product number are shown.
In discussion, discuss your results before relating them to the results of other published work.
Our comments: we have added more text discussing our results (lines 311-321).
Precise conclusion as it’s too short in its current form. Add a significant statement that must be structured as “what was offered by authors? Do the authors have more thoughts on this field?
Our comments: we have added more text into the conclusion section (lines 409-412).
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper is very interesting ,Three different entities, sclerodermiform, solid and superficial 17 basal cell carcinomas, were subjected to immunohistochemical microscopy and histomorphometric for human α- and β-defensins
I would clarify the format of table 2 to be easier to read
Author Response
Comments to reviewer2
Dear reviewer,
we are very grateful for all your comments and suggestions which we really appreciate. They were very helpful and have definitely improved our manuscript.
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The paper is very interesting ,Three different entities, sclerodermiform, solid and superficial 17 basal cell carcinomas, were subjected to immunohistochemical microscopy and histomorphometric for human α- and β-defensins
I would clarify the format of table 2 to be easier to read
Our comments: we have changed table 2 and hope it will be easier to understand.
