Mol Med Rep 17: [Related article:] 7797–7806, 2018; DOI:
10.3892/mmr.2018.8823
Following the publication of this article, a
concerned reader drew to the Editor's attention that the
experimental design of the western blot assay experiments portrayed
in Fig. 5A on p. 7804, and the overall organization of this figure,
may have been flawed, as mitochondrial and cytosolic proteins were
featured in the figure with only one set of supporting control
western blot data; in this scenario, the proteins would necessarily
have needed to have been obtained from two separate cell samples in
different experiments, and blotted on to separate gels. Moreover,
there was also a concern that certain of the gels featured possible
breaks in their continuity/splicing events, such that the protein
bands in the figure were not shown consecutively, as they would
have appeared, in the affected slices.
After having conducted an internal investigation, the
Editor of Molecular Medicine Reports agrees with the reader
that there were anomalies associated with the presentation of Fig.
5. Therefore, on the grounds of a lack of confidence in the
presented data, the Editor has decided that the article should be
retracted from the publication. The authors were asked for an
explanation to account for these concerns, but the Editorial Office
did not receive a reply. The Editor apologizes to the readership
for any inconvenience caused, and we also thank the reader for
bringing this matter to our attention.
