Oncol Lett 17: [Related article:] 1445–1452, 2019; DOI:
10.3892/ol.2018.9800
Following the publication of the above paper, it was
drawn to the Editor's attention by a concerned reader that the CDK2
protein blots in Fig. 5A for the U87 and U251 cell lines on p. 1451
were strikingly similar, suggesting that the same data had been
included in this figure to show the results of different
experiments. In addition, for the cell invasion assay experiments
shown in Fig. 4A on p. 1450, the si-Sirt7-1 and si-Sirt7-2 data
panels for the U87 cell line appeared to contain an overlapping
section. Upon subsequently performing an independent analysis of
the data in this paper in the Editorial Office, it also came to
light that: i) a pair of the β-actin blots in Fig. 2A were also
featured in Fig. 2B, albeit the reported experimental conditions
were different; ii) the Sirt7 blots in Fig. 2C were apparently
re-used as the p-ERK blots in Fig. 5A; iii) β-actin bands in Fig.
2A doubled up as β-actin bands in Fig. 5A, where different
experimental conditions were reported; iv) in Fig. 1A, the β-actin
bands for patient nos. 6–8 (top panel) doubled up as the β-actin
bands for patient nos. 13–15 (lower panel); and v) control β-actin
data in Fig. 1A had appeared previously in a paper featuring some
of the same authors in the journal International Journal of
Molecular Science, albeit this may have been intentional based
on the reported experimental conditions.
Given the large number of potentially anomalous
issues identified with the abovementioned figures in this paper,
the Editor of Oncology Letters has decided that it should be
retracted from the Journal on account of a lack of confidence in
the presented data. 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.
