Int J Mol Med 43: [Related article:] 1311-1320, 2019; DOI:
10.3892/ijmm.2019.4074
Following the publication of the above paper, it was
drawn to the Editor's attention by an interested reader that a pair
of unsuitable antibodies may have been used as a part of the
western blot analysis shown in Fig. 1E on p. 1314. First, the
antibody with the catalogue number ab51243 (purchased from Abcam),
is not specific for p16-INK4a (the senescence- associated protein
studied in this paper), but a totally different protein with a
similar name, p16-ARC. A concern was also raised regarding the
anti-β-galactosidase antibody (cat. no. ab9361; Abcam) that was
employed, which is specific for the bacterial protein and is only
distantly related to human β-galactosidase according to its
sequence (neither is this antibody the closest homologue to
bacterial β-galactosidase in the human proteome).
The authors have been contacted by the Editorial
Office to offer an explanation for the selection of these
apparently unsuitable antibodies for the western blot analysis, and
we are awaiting their response. Owing to the fact that the
Editorial Office has been made aware of a potential problem
surrounding the design of these experiments in this study, we are
issuing an Expression of Concern to notify readers of this issue
while the Editorial Office continues to investigate this matter
further.
