We, the Editors and Publisher of Autophagy, have retracted the following article: Hong Pyo Kim, Xue Wang, Seon-Jin Lee, Min-Hsin Huang, Yong Wan, Stefan W. Ryter & Augustine M.K. Choi (2008) Autophagic proteins regulate cigarette smoke induced apoptosis: Protective role of heme oxygenase-1, Autophagy, 4:7, 887-895, DOI: 10.4161/auto.6767
Following publication, concerns have been raised about the integrity of data. An institutional investigation by Cornell University, Harvard Medical School, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital found the following issues in the below figures in the published article:
Figure 2A: The reuse of the same image to represent the third through sixth lanes in the IB1Fas panel in Figure 2A, which was previously used as the third through sixth bands in the FLIP panel of Figure 2E and Figure 4B in the published article: Wang, Xue et al. (2004) Hepatocyte Growth Factor Protects against Hypoxia/Reoxygenation-induced Apoptosis in Endothelial Cells, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 279:7, 5237-5243, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M309271200;
Figure 2A: The reuse of the same image to represent the first and second lane of the IB/FAS panel in Figure 2A, which was previously used as the first and second lane of the FLIP panel in Figure 2E in the published article: Wang, Xue et al. (2004) Hepatocyte Growth Factor Protects against Hypoxia/Reoxygenation-induced Apoptosis in Endothelial Cells, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 279:7, 5237-5243, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M309271200;
Figure 2D: The reuse of the same image to represent the first through fifth lanes of the β-actin panel in Figure 2D, which was previously used as the second through sixth lanes of the Total Bax panel in Figure 2C in the published article: Xue Wang, Yong Wang, Jinglan Zhang, Hong Pyo Kim, Stefan W. Ryter & Augustine M. K. Choi (2005) FLIP Protects against Hypoxia/Reoxygenation- Induced Endothelial Cell Apoptosis by Inhibiting Bax Activation, Molecular and Cellular Biology, 25:11, 4742-4751, DOI: 10.1128/MCB.25.11.4742-4751.2005.
During the course of the institutional investigation, the authors were unable to provide any raw data to satisfactorily address the raised concerns.
Given the concerns raised, the editorial team of Autophagy investigated this matter and no longer have confidence in the findings of the article and are proceeding with retraction of the article. The corresponding author listed in this publication has been informed, though the authors do not agree with the retraction.
We have been informed in our decision-making by our editorial policies and the COPE guidelines. The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”