Hepatology issues corrections in two papers from Pitt liver group

hepatology A group of liver researchers from the University of Pittsburgh has earned a pair of corrections in Hepatology for image problems.

The team was led by George K. Michalopoulos, chair of the department of pathology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

One article, “Excessive hepatomegaly of mice with hepatocyte-targeted elimination of integrin linked kinase following treatment with 1,4-bis [2-(3,5-dichaloropyridyloxy)] benzene,” appeared in January 2011. According to the notice:

In the February 2011 issue of Hepatology, in the article titled “Excessive hepatomegaly of mice with hepatocyte-targeted elimination of integrin linked kinase following treatment with 1,4-bis [2-(3,5-dichaloropyridyloxy)] benzene” (volume 53, pages 587-595; doi: 10.1002/hep.24040), by Shashikiran Donthamsetty, Vishakha S. Bhave, Corrine S. Kliment, William C. Bowen, Wendy M. Mars, Aaron W. Bell, Rachel E. Stewart, Anne Orr, Chuanyue Wu and George K. Michalopoulos, the upper left photomicrograph of Fig. 4D, showing Myc expression in nonhepatectomized wild-type mice, was erroneously taken from the liver of a nonhepatectomized ILK knockout mouse. The following image is derived from wild-type mice and corrects the image published in the original article.

hep27257-fig-0001-t

The second article,”Hepatocyte proliferation and hepatomegaly induced by phenobarbital and TCPOBOP is suppressed in hepatocyte-targeted glypican 3 transgenic mice,” came out in August 2011. The correction for this paper is somewhat more involved (we might call it a “mega-correction”):

In the August 2011 issue of HEPATOLOGY, in the article titled “Hepatocyte Proliferation and Hepatomegaly Induced by Phenobarbital and TCPOBOP Is Suppressed in Hepatocyte-Targeted Glypican 3 Transgenic Mice”(54:620-630), by Chih-Wen Lin, Wendy M. Mars, Shirish Paranjpe, Shashikiran Donthamsetty, Vishakha S. Bhave, Liang-I Kang, Anne Orr, William C. Bowen, Aaron W. Bell, and George K. Michalopoulos, prompted by the discovery of errors in beta actin and GAPDH bands noticed by one of the readers, a thorough reexamination of the data was undertaken. Data were discovered that had not been incorporated in the total analysis until now, and some of the bands were found to be misplaced. The necessary corrections to the errors are as follows:

Figure 3. Panels A, B, E, and F are removed. Panels C and D are replaced by corrected panels 3 A and B.
Figure 4. Corrected panels 4 A and B replace the previous panels 4 A and B.
Figure 5. Panels C and D are removed. Panels 5 A and B are replaced by the corrected panels A and B.
Figure 6. Corrected panels A and B replace previous panels A and B.

The notice provides the corrected panels, and concludes with the following:

The fundamental conclusions of the paper remain intact, as follows:
1. Glypican-3 (GPC3) transgenic mice have substantially decreased growth response to phenobarbital (PB) and TCPOBOP. This is shown by liver to body weight ratio and Ki67 nuclear labeling.
2. There is decreased expression of HGF in the GPC3 transgenic (TG) mice.
3. There is increased phospho-YAP cytoplasmic protein especially in the PB- but also in the TCPOBOP-treated mice.
4. All data in the tables remain intact.
5. All gene expression tables remain intact.
6. The Supporting Figure reflecting gene expression changes in the top 150 expressed genes also remains intact.

The papers have been cited eight and six times, respectively, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.

We’ve asked UPMC if it has looked into the papers and will update this post if we learn more.

2 thoughts on “Hepatology issues corrections in two papers from Pitt liver group”

  1. Comments at Pubpeer suggest that a correction is to be made to PLoS One. 2014 Apr 24;9(4):e96053.

    https://pubpeer.com/publications/48CB1C0BD70B84D4EB4977D9D85AFC

    PLoS One. 2014 Apr 24;9(4):e96053. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0096053. eCollection 2014.
    3 comments on PubPeer
    Synthesis of IL-6 by hepatocytes is a normal response to common hepatic stimuli.
    Norris CA1, He M1, Kang LI1, Ding MQ1, Radder JE1, Haynes MM1, Yang Y1, Paranjpe S1, Bowen WC1, Orr A1, Michalopoulos GK1, Stolz DB2, Mars WM1.
    Author information
    1Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
    2Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.

  2. Hepatology. 2011 Oct;54(4):1360-70 has received a comment at Pubpeer.

    https://pubpeer.com/publications/F983E5442C961198A58D2FB9CD42A6

    Hepatology. 2011 Oct;54(4):1360-70. doi: 10.1002/hep.24507. Epub 2011 Aug 24.
    1 comment on PubPeer
    Genes inducing iPS phenotype play a role in hepatocyte survival and proliferation in vitro and liver regeneration in vivo.
    Bhave VS1, Paranjpe S, Bowen WC, Donthamsetty S, Bell AW, Khillan JS, Michalopoulos GK.
    Author information
    1Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.

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