Mol Med Rep 17: [Related article:] 5652-5657, 2018; DOI:
10.3892/mmr.2018.8599
An interested reader drew to our attention that, in
the above paper, several of the figures appeared to contain
strikingly similar data to those published in other articles by
different authors from different research institutions, including
(as examples) Fig. 8 (cf. Fig. 8 in Fang, K et al:
‘Antiproliferative effects of matricine in gemcitabine-resistant
human pancreatic carcinoma cells are mediated via
mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis, inhibition of cell migration,
invasion suppression, and mammalian target of rapamycin
(mTOR)-TOR/PI3K/AKT signalling pathway’, Med Sci Monit 25:
2943-2949, 2019), Fig. 4 (cf. Fig. 7 in He, W et al:
‘Arglabin is a plant sesquiterpene lactone that exerts potent
anticancer effects on human oral squamous cancer cells via
mitochondrial apoptosis and downregulation of the mTOR/PI3K/Akt
signaling pathway to inhibit tumor growth in vivo’, J BUON
23: 1679-1685, 2018) and Fig. 7 (cf. Fig. 7B in Yu, Y et al:
‘Globularifolin exerts anticancer effects on glioma U87 cells
through inhibition of Akt/mTOR and MEK/ERK signaling pathways in
vitro and inhibits tumor growth in vivo’, Biochemie 42:
144-151, 2017). The authors also independently informed the
Editorial Office that they were unable to repeat the experiments
shown in Fig. 4, and requested a retraction.
Given the overall problems that have come to light
with this paper, the Editor of Molecular Medicine Reports
has agreed with the authors that this article should be retracted
from the publication. The Editor and the authors apologize for any
inconvenience caused.
