Peer Review History
| Original SubmissionJanuary 23, 2026 |
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-->PONE-D-26-04060-->-->Overexpression of CD97 in intestinal epithelial cells attenuates LPS-induced pro-inflammatory cytokine induction via stabilization of β-catenin early in life-->-->PLOS One Dear Dr. Dressler, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. -->-->The key issues include improving the quality of data and its presentation. The authors should respond to each comments of the reviewers in a point by point manner. Please submit your revised manuscript by May 17 2026 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:-->
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If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] 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: Partly Reviewer #2: Yes ********** -->2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? --> Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: I Don't Know ********** -->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 ********** -->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 ********** -->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: This manuscript demonstrates that CD97 overexpression in small intestinal epithelial cells decreases neonatal susceptibility to endotoxin and dampens NF-κB signalling through post-translational stabilization of β-catenin. By interfering with LPS-regulated pathways, this mechanism suppresses p65-dependent pro-inflammatory gene expression. This protective effect is particularly important during early stages of intestinal development, when postnatally acquired negative regulators of TLR4/NF-κB signalling are not fully developed. Overall, the findings indicate that CD97 functions as a protective modulator of intestinal inflammation by stabilizing β-catenin and limiting NF-κB–mediated inflammatory responses. These insights highlight the potential relevance of CD97-mediated signaling in protecting the immature intestine and suggest possible therapeutic implications for neonatal inflammatory disorders such as necrotizing enterocolitis. The experiments are well designed and executed, and addressing a few concerns would further strengthen the study and enhance its impact. Comments: Major • Western blots are shown in several figures; however, densitometric quantification and statistical analysis are lacking. Including these analyses would strengthen the interpretation and significance of the protein expression data • In Figure 5C, the GAPDH blots appear blurry and are difficult to interpret. The authors should provide clearer blots for proper evaluation. Alternatively, β-actin could be used as a cytoplasmic loading control for normalization • Also, in Figure 5C, two wild-type and three TgCD samples are mentioned in the legends; however, only one wild-type expression band appears to be shown in the blot. The authors should clarify this discrepancy and provide the corresponding data for all the mentioned samples. • The manuscript would benefit from including concise descriptions of the generation of CD97 overexpressing and knockout mice in the Methods section, to enhance clarity and reproducibility • In Figure 3, please include a significance bar comparing treated and untreated CD97 knockout samples to better illustrate their similarity to the wild-type condition. This addition would strengthen the interpretation of whether the treatment mimics the wild-type phenotype • The use of same TNFα and IL-1β values for wild-type mice in both the CD97 overexpression and CD97 knockout experiments is concerning and raises questions regarding the independence of the datasets. The authors must clarify whether the same wild-type control data were used for both experiments and provide a clear justification, as the use of identical control data across separate experiments is generally not acceptable - Fig 1B and 3A - Fig 1C and 3B - Fig 1F and 3C - Fig 1G and 3D • The novelty of the study is not well established. Multiple previous studies have already demonstrated the role of CD97 following LPS induction; therefore, the authors must clearly define the novel aspect of this work and explain how it advances current understanding beyond what is already known Minor • Please include a comma in the first line of the Author Summary after “(NEC)” and also in the first line of the discussion section after the word “study” to improve readability. Lines 53 and 389 • The Methods section (Immunoblot analysis) states that cytoplasmic proteins were isolated by centrifuging the supernatant at 'maximum speed' for 15 min. Please provide the exact centrifugation speed to ensure reproducibility. Line 201 • It is suggested to insert the word “of” between ‘context’ and ‘acute’ to improve readability. Line 527 • Abbreviations should be defined where used for the first time and then consistently used in the manuscript Reviewer #2: Study by Niklas Dressler et al, entitled “Overexpression of CD97 in intestinal epithelial cells attenuates LPS-induced proinflammatory cytokine induction via stabilization of β-catenin early in life”. The authors studied the impact of IEC-specific CD97 overexpression on LPS-induced cytokine expression in isolated IECs. There are several concerns, and addressing them will strengthen the study. 1) While TNF upregulation was significantly reduced in IEC-specific CD97 overexpressing cells, IL-1β remained unchanged. Since NEC pathogenesis involves multiple cytokines acting collectively, assessing individual cytokines provides only a partial view. 2) Better representative blot should be provided for PPAR-γ, as the internal control shows considerable variation between the control and treatment groups. Additionally, a bar graph for densitometric analysis should be included. 3) Nuclear PPAR-γ levels should also be measured, as PPAR-γ activation is best assessed by its nuclear localization. 4) In Figure 5, the Y-axis label for β-catenin should be corrected for spelling. 5) The statistical analysis for the figure should be re-examined. For example, in Figure 1F, data points in the blue bar appear to have minimal error, yet the results are not significant. 6) For the cytoplasmic fraction in Figure 5C, the GAPDH blot is of poor quality and should be replaced with clearer, more reliable data. ********** -->6. 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: Nazim Husain Reviewer #2: No ********** [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.] To ensure your figures meet our technical requirements, please review our figure guidelines: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures You may also use PLOS’s free figure tool, NAAS, to help you prepare publication quality figures: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures#loc-tools-for-figure-preparation. NAAS will assess whether your figures meet our technical requirements by comparing each figure against our figure specifications. |
| Revision 1 |
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Overexpression of CD97 in intestinal epithelial cells attenuates LPS-induced pro-inflammatory cytokine induction via stabilization of β-catenin early in life PONE-D-26-04060R1 Dear Dr. Dressler, 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. An invoice will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. 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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 ********** -->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 ********** -->3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? --> Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: I Don't Know ********** -->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 ********** -->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 ********** -->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: The authors have adequately addressed all the concerns raised by the reviewers, and the manuscript has improved substantially. It is now in good shape for publication. I noted only one minor issue: the word "Densitometric" appears to contain a spelling error throughout the manuscript and should be corrected consistently. Other than this minor typographical issue, the manuscript is in good shape. Reviewer #2: (No Response) ********** -->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: Nazim Husain Reviewer #2: Yes: Anoop Kumar ********** |
| Formally Accepted |
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PONE-D-26-04060R1 PLOS One Dear Dr. Dressler, I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS One. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now being handed over to our production team. At this stage, our production department will prepare your paper for publication. This includes ensuring the following: * All references, tables, and figures are properly cited * All relevant supporting information is included in the manuscript submission, * There are no issues that prevent the paper from being properly typeset You will receive further instructions from the production team, including instructions on how to review your proof when it is ready. Please keep in mind that we are working through a large volume of accepted articles, so please give us a few days to review your paper and let you know the next and final steps. Lastly, if your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. You will receive an invoice from PLOS for your publication fee after your manuscript has reached the completed accept phase. If you receive an email requesting payment before acceptance or for any other service, this may be a phishing scheme. Learn how to identify phishing emails and protect your accounts at https://explore.plos.org/phishing. If we can help with anything else, please email us at customercare@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Pradeep Dudeja Academic Editor PLOS One |
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