Single‐cell transcriptomics of LepR‐positive skeletal cells reveals heterogeneous stress‐dependent stem and progenitor pools
Chunyang Mo, Jingxin Guo, Jiachen Qin, Xiaoying Zhang, Yuxi Sun, Hanjing Wei, Dandan Cao, Yiying Zhang, Chengchen Zhao, Yanhong Xiong, Yong Zhang, Yao Sun, Li Shen, Rui Yue
Abstract
The referees acknowledge the potential interest and value of your resource analysis, although they also express major concerns, which need to be addressed before they can be supportive of publication at the EMBO Journal. In more detail, reviewer #2 points to inconsistent consideration of male vs female mice, which decreases the robustness and impact of your results in his/her view (ref#2, pt.1); This referee also requests reanalysis of the clustering and quantification of Notch data (ref#2, pts.2,3). Further, referee #3 remains critical on the specificity of the Cre models used (ref#3, pt.2) and requests more characterisation of the roles of Notch3-positive cells in vivo and Hoxb2, Npcd1 as functional regulators of cell fate in this context (ref#3, pt.6). In line, reviewer #1 states major concerns regarding the pathophysiological relevance of the in vitro lineage potential analysis of the new cell populations and asks you to consolidate these with in vivo transplantation work.