PONE-D-22-04396Association of plasma metabolites and diagnostic imaging findings with hepatic lipidosis in bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps) and effects of gemfibrozil therapyPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Beaufrere,

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

So sorry for the delay of reviewing this manuscript. It was difficult to find reviewers.

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Well-done. Important manuscript focused on an important captive species. I enjoyed reading how the authors worked through the problem of hepatic lipidosis by pursuing cutting edge methods to develop a better understanding of this important disease in this species. Limitations well thought out and described. I classify this as a major revisions only because there were more than a handful of comments, but most are suggestions for grammar, etc. Hope these veterinary scientists can continue to pursue this research.

Reviewer #2: Authors demonstrated here that BHBA and succinate were very good candidates as biomarkers for abnormalities in hepatic lipid metabolism of bearded dragons and that gemfibrozil was good for the treatment of fatty liver in bearded dragons. These findings are very important and valuable for understanding bearded dragons' abnormality in lipid metabolism. However, several points in examination of gemfibrozil's effects should be confirmed before publish as the followings, although finding biomarkers is good. In addition, authors should modify this manuscript according to basic format as a manuscript submitted to PONE, because this manuscript was not described in a standard format.

Majors:

1) Authors should show CT data of gemfibrozil-treated bearded dragons. The data would be useful for diagnosis and treatment of fatty liver.

2) Serum parameters of gemfibrozil-treated bearded dragons should be shown. An important effect of gemfibrozil is to decrease serum TG levels. Therefore, data on serum parameters such as TG levels are essential for evaluating the effects of gemfibrozil. If possible, the time course of TG levels during gemfibrozil administration should be indicated.

Minors:

1) The "Materials and Methods" section should be rearranged. In the "Results" section, animal information should not be described and only explanation of data should be described. The animal information should be moved to the "Materials and Methods." In the "Materials and Methods", "Inclusion criteria, animals, exclusion criteria" is too long and broken into small items including the animal information described in the "Results" now.

2) Figure legends should be revised. Normally, figure legends should contain information on the display of data. The figure legends in this manuscript is too little information and difficult to understand. It is necessary to describe in Figure legends what kind of values, what kind of graphs, how to do statistical analysis, etc. Please check other articles on PONE carefully.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Mark A. Mitchell

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-22-04396_reviewer FINAL.pdf

Association of plasma metabolites and diagnostic imaging findings with hepatic lipidosis in bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps) and effects of gemfibrozil therapy

PONE-D-22-04396R1

Dear Dr. Beaufrere,

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.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Nobuyuki Takahashi, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Thank you for addressing the comments. The article provides additional insight into an important disease in bearded dragons (and captive reptiles in general).

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: Yes: Mark A. Mitchell

Reviewer #2: No

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