An Elsevier journal has retracted a paper coauthored by a deputy department chair at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and says it plans to retract at least two more of his articles for image-related concerns.
The 2022 paper, in Matrix Biology, describes the regulatory role of proteoglycans in remodeling of the cervix during pregnancy. According to the August 12 retraction notice, 18 of the image panels were duplicates. The paper has been cited 18 times, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science.
Renato Iozzo, deputy chair of Pathology, Anatomy & Cell Biology at Jefferson, is a coauthor on the study. Neither Iozzo nor corresponding author Mala Mahendroo, a researcher at UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, responded to our requests for comment.
The paper was first flagged on PubPeer in May in a comment noting panels in two different figures were “more similar than expected.” That same month, pseudonymous sleuth Claire Francis sent the journal PubPeer comments for that paper and several others coauthored by Iozzo that had been flagged for image problems, according to correspondence Retraction Watch has seen. Three of the articles were published in Matrix Biology.
According to the retraction notice, Mahendroo “acknowledged the image duplications, unequal image sizing, and reuse of images for multiple genotypes” and said “multiple images were generated … from three biological samples.” Although the authors provided corrected images, the notice stated, the editorial team had “lost confidence in the reliability of the findings.”
“[A]pologies are offered to readers of the journal that this was not detected during the submission process,” the notice continues.
According to emails from editor-in-chief Joanne Murphy-Ullrich to Francis that we have seen, at least two other papers by the same authors will be retracted.
One of them is a 2017 paper describing a glycoprotein’s role in angiogenesis that was also flagged on PubPeer in May for image duplication and has been cited 59 times.
The corresponding author is Maurizio Mongiat, a former researcher at Iozzo’s lab, who is currently affiliated with the Oncology Referral Center in Aviano, Italy. Mongiat did not respond to multiple email requests for comment.
The second article, from 2020, looks at a glycoprotein’s role in gastric cancer and was published in Matrix Biology Plus, a companion title to Matrix Biology that is not indexed in Web of Science. The paper had problems with two panels that contained unexpected similarities, according to the PubPeer comments.
Murphy-Ullrich, who is also editor-in-chief of Matrix Biology Plus, told Francis on May 11 figures in the 2020 paper “look flipped,” adding, “We will raise this with the authors.” She copied Elsevier publisher Lynn Sherrer on her email.
In a July 12 email, Murphy-Ullrich added the journal “ran our own forensics and uncovered additional issues” in Iozzo’s papers beyond the issues flagged on PubPeer. “We have now notified the authors of 3 of the articles that we have decided to retract these articles,” she wrote.
The emails also stated Matrix Biology planned to correct a 2021 paper that was flagged on PubPeer. The correction was posted on August 16.
An Elsevier spokesperson told us the publisher was still investigating the papers.
More of Iozzo’s works have been flagged on PubPeer for image issues, including a 2016 article in Oncotarget that was corrected last October. And in 2019, Iozzo lost a paper for duplication, according to the PLOS One retraction notice. He and the other authors of the paper disagreed with the retraction.
Update, September 11, 2025: This story was updated to clarify the “additional issues” were in the same papers flagged on PubPeer, not additional papers. We also updated the story to state the correction on the 2021 paper was posted on August 16.
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