01 - June - 2017 Peer Review for Explant Culture by Michael Le

Given their latin roots, I find it common practice to italicize 'in vivo' and 'ex vivo' but perhaps this is just a stylistic choice on my end.

Redundancy/Conciseness: "The composition of extracellular matrix, for example, must be very precisely similar to that of in vivo conditions in order to induce naturally observed behaviors of cells." (Very is unnecessary, makes the piece seem wordy and more awkward than need be)

"Since the explant culture is grown in the lab, the area or cells of interest can be labeled with fluorescent markers."

Paragraph flow/structure: "Organogenesis and morphogenesis in fetus have been studied with explant cultures. Since the explant culture is grown in the lab, the area or cells of interest could be labeled with fluorescent markers. These transgenic labels can help researchers observe growth of specific cells. For example, neural tissue development and central nervous system regeneration have been studied with organotypic explant culture." (Paragraph starts with examples of explant cultures, follows with advantages to explan cultures and ends with another example of explant culture; would like to see the examples paired in the beginning or the end).

"The role of gene" (Wording is awkward here)

"Looking at the expression pattern would allow tracking of where the gene transcripts have been. How much gene has been expressed could be quantified too." (These two pieces can be rewritten in a stronger manner; speak to microarrays or other gene expression assays. Speak to qRT-PCR as a methodology for quantifying gene expression. Be more concrete with what types of readouts we can obtain from this explant culture technique and your article will provide a more robust understanding of the topic).

" So far bladder and trachea have been developed. This method attempts to address tissue rejection, and there are already cases of successful transplantation. " (Given the following sentences and citation 4, there is no need for these two statements. If anything, do try to weave in the reason behind these projects [tissue rejection] in the following sentence re: Wake Forest + University College)

"its caveat should be noted" (Wording)

"The model organism must be sacrificed in order to collect target organ or tissue. After the sample of interest has been gathered, it must be stored at 37 °C incubator with 5% carbon dioxide and a growth medium. Serum-free, nutritious medium provides all the nutrients for the cells to grow thus cells would ultimately form a thin sheet. The samples can be also sliced and incubated to observe how thin sheets of cell go through development" (I'd like a formal citation addressing the formal protocol for this procedure. Unfortunately, it looks like citations 3-8 are broken).

"Understanding retina’s development has led a way for researchers to pay attention to pathological neurodegeneration and related retinal diseases." (Wording, necessity of this statement?)

Great contribution to the WikiVerse! Although I have come across this technique many times in reading scientific articles, I'm having trouble discriminating between this and simply plating the tissue/cells ex vivo. Are the terms synonymous? If not, I'd appreciate a small bit outlining the discrepancies between the two terms. I thought the tone was appropriate and there was a fair bit of information. Do try and make sure to emulate the amount of material/information in the introduction section in the rest of the article's contents. It seems like after the application section the piece falls very flat in not only material but flow and structure as well. Also, if you're curious, I've read two papers this quarter pertaining to bone and cartilage (this utilizes ex vivo/explant culture to analyze the mechanism behind differentiation of progenitor cells destined for limb development) and the other pertaining to retinal degeneration (less relevant to the topic at hand) and have attached them below. Perhaps you can incorporate the former piece. Great job!

Limb Bud Differentiation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28087638

Retinal Degeneration: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28428265

~~Fin~~

Peer reviewing: 1. Chemogenetics 2. Interleukin-8 receptors

Live edited: explant culture

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