PONE-D-20-06858

Delayed short-term tamoxifen treatment does not promote remyelination or neuron sparing after spinal cord injury

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Mctigue,

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Antal Nógrádi, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewer #1: It is well known that immediate administration of tamoxifen, a FDA-approved drug has neuroprotective effect following traumatic injury of spinal cord. This study aimed to identify the effect of delayed short-term tamoxifen treatment on tissue sparing and functional recovery following spinal cord contusion injury in male and female mice. The authors treated mice with tamoxifen for 4 consecutive days at three weeks after injury and examined a number of morphological parameters such as myelination, NG2+ progenitor cell proliferation, astrocyte and macrophage reactivity, neuron and axon numbers and hind limb motor recovery. The authors have made serious efforts to evaluate and explain extensively the details of the morphological and functional results.

However, the delayed short-term tamoxifen administration did not affect the extent of demyelination and remyelination, and did not alter the cell ploriferation and astrogliosis. Based on the present data, delayed tamoxifen treatment has no positive effect on tissue sparing and motor function recovery. Nevertheless, these negative findings are valuable components of spinal cord research.

There are some minor points to be corrected:

1) Fig. 4: Authors quantified the neurons in the gray matter of dorsal and ventral horns rostrally and caudally to the lesion. Was any sprouting observed around the lesion/cavity?

2) Tamoxifen was administrated by oral gavage to spinal cord injured mice. Why was the tamoxifen administrated for 4 days? Please explain.

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Reviewer #1: No

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Delayed short-term tamoxifen treatment does not promote remyelination or neuron sparing after spinal cord injury

PONE-D-20-06858R1

Dear Dr. Mctigue,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Antal Nógrádi, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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