Review for 10.1186/s12876-016-0459-7 (2016)

Reviewer’s report  
Title: Synergistic effect of κ-carrageenan on oxazolone -induced inflammation in BALB/c mice  
 
Version: 1 Date: 08 Jan 2016  
 
Reviewer: Kamal Amin  
Reviewer’s report:  
Overall, I agree with the substantial modification made by the authors after the first revision and 
I have only minor comments  
 
1- This is finally an observational study and authors did not study the mechanistic aspect of 
carragean. It would be interesting for discussion that the author discussed the main way 
of action of carragean responsible for increasing ongoing mucosal inflamm ation. Since 
activation of TLR4 could increase and activate NFKB pathway, increase expression of 
TLR4 (and thus sensitivity to LPS) by carragean could be the main effect and the other 
observations only a consequence. This should be discuss  
 
2- Please update reference according to author guidelines  
 
3- Figure and Table should be understood without the text and abbreviations have to be 
explain in legends  
 
4- There is some grammatical mistakes of the revised text that should be corrected.  
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which con trols are required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you r ecommend an 
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please specify what aspects require further 
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
Not relevant to this manuscript  
 
Quality of written English  
Please in dicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Acceptable  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
Please complete a declaration of competing interests, consideri ng the following questions:  
 
1. Have you in the past five years received reimbursements, fees, fun ding, or salary from an 
organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this 
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2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may in any way gain or lose 
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3. Do you hold or are you currently applying for any patents relating to the  content of the 
manuscript?  
 
4. Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that 
holds or has applied for patents relating to the  content of the manuscript?  
 
5. Do you have any other fin ancial competing interests?  
 
6. Do you have any non -financial competing interests  in relation to this paper?  
 
If you can answer no to all of the above, write 'I declare that I have no competing interests' 
below. If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
I declare that I have no competing interests  
 
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