The Microbiome’s Function in Disorders of the Urinary Bladder

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors,

I found your work a pleasant reading. You gave a general overview on an important item, form different point of view, taking into account clinical concerns, diseases and diagnostic.

Just as minor point:

1. I guess there is a typo in line 129: “d” ;
2. The reference present in line 136 seems not to follows the general formatting rules.

Author Response

The reviewers have provided a very insightful and thoughtful commentary on our manuscript; in addressing them we have improved this manuscript, and we have also incorporated important sentences that the reviewers suggested. We sincerely appreciate each reviewer’s critical reading of our manuscript and his or her thoughtful input.

1.  I guess there is a typo in line 129: “d”

=> We removed the typo.

2. The reference present in line 136 seems not to follows the general formatting rules.:

=> We changed the format of reference. And, the rest of the citations were double-checked.

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper by Kwang Woo Lee et al. describes the microbiome's function in disorders of the urinary bladder.
This is an interesting article and has the potential to contribute an update of knowledge in the field. 

Comments and suggestions for authors:

The authors might mention that urinary tract infection (UTI) is 50 times more common in women than men, and is the most common type of bacterial infection.
Additionally, there is no information as to why women get sick more often than men.
The authors may also mention changes in the urinary tract microbiome in pregnant women. 

Author Response

The reviewers have provided a very insightful and thoughtful commentary on our manuscript; in addressing them we have improved this manuscript, and we have also incorporated important sentences that the reviewers suggested. We sincerely appreciate each reviewer’s critical reading of our manuscript and his or her thoughtful input.

1. The authors might mention that urinary tract infection (UTI) is 50 times more common in women than men, and is the most common type of bacterial infection.

=> We appreciate the reviewer’s comment. We included the sentences comparing men and women's UTI incidence rates at lines 175 - 178 (Reference: Urinary tract infections in women, DOI: 10.1016/j.mcna.2010.08.023).

2. Additionally, there is no information as to why women get sick more often than men.

=> We added the following information in the manuscript. “According to the literature (Infect Dis Clin North Am . 2014 Mar;28(1):1-13. doi: 10.1016/j.idc.2013.09.003.), the vaginal cavity and rectal opening of women are located in close proximity to the urethral opening. Additionally, women have more wet periurethral regions, which are suitable growing grounds for bacteria. Due to the shorter urethral length, the bacteria entering the urethra are more likely to ascend to the female bladder than the male bladder.” These sentences are added at lines 179-183 of the manuscript.

3. The authors may also mention changes in the urinary tract microbiome in pregnant women.

=> We also appreciate the reviewer’s insightful suggestions which expand the scope of this manuscript's content. We added the short paragraph at lines 132-144 of the manuscript.