After finding several errors in their paper about the molecular activity underlying gastric cancer, the authors unanimously decided to retract it.
According to the retraction note, three figures in the paper had β‑actin bands that were omitted, interchanged, or both.
The retraction note provides the details:
After the publication of the article, the authors noted that they had made errors in their research article titled ‘Interleukin‑11 induces the expression of matrix metalloproteinase 13 in gastric cancer SCH cells partly through PI3K‑AKT and JAK‑STAT3 pathways’. All authors unanimously decided they wished to retract the article published in Molecular Medicine Reports 9: 1371-1375, 2014.We wish to retract the article for the following reasons. The β‑actin band in control group in figure 3, the β‑actin band in IL11+wortmannin treated group in figure 5 and the β‑actin band in IL11+siRNA treated group in figure 6 were unintentionally omitted. The β‑actin bands in IL11 treated groups in figures 5 and 6 were placed wrongly and should be interchanged. We are sorry for errors in the preparation of these figures. We deeply apologize to the readers and editors for any inconvenience caused by this retraction.
The paper has been cited six times, once by the retraction, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.
We reached out to the corresponding authors Wei Zhu and Yali Zhang, both listed at Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University in China to see if there was anything else we should know. We’ll update this post if we hear back.
Hat tip: Rolf Degen
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