Expression of Concern for: p21-Activated Kinase 4 and Ischemic Acute Kidney Injury in Mice and Humans

Regarding the article by Yu et al., “p21-Activated Kinase 4 and Ischemic Acute Kidney Injury in Mice and Humans” (J Am Soc Nephrol. 2025;36(7):1264–1277. doi:10.1681/ASN.0000000649),¹ the editors of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology are issuing an “Expression of Concern.” Through image evaluation tools, following receipt of an anonymous email from a reader, potential image manipulation was detected.

The specific concerns are as follows:

• 1. Duplication:

  • Figure 1C.

  • Figure 2C.

• 2. Duplication:

  • Figure 1C, WT I/R kidney, H&E

  • Supplemental Figure 2C, Cisplatin-treated WT kidney, H&E

• 3. Splice:

  • Figure 2D, Nuclear p65 panel, between lanes 2 and 3

• 4. Duplication:

  • Figure 7C, I/R/Vehicle, 4-HNE/DAPI

  • Figure 7C, Sham/SJ-05, CD11b/F4/80/DAPI

  • [Blue channels are duplicated]

• 5. Duplication:

  • Supplemental Figure 10B, Sham/WT, H&E

  • Supplemental Figure 10B, Sham/KO+SJ-05, H&E

  • [Frameshifted fields of the same microscope slide]

• 6. Duplication:

  • Supplemental Figure 10B, I/R/KO, TUNEL/DAPI

  • Supplemental Figure 10B, I/R/KO+SJ-05, TUNEL/DAPI

  • [Frameshifted fields of the same microscope slide]

There are several instances where phosphoproteins appear to have been detected on different blots than their corresponding total proteins, based on differing band shapes and/or orientations:

1. Figure 2D: p-IKKβ1 and IKKβ1 and p-p65 and p65

2. Figure 8A: p-GPx3 and GPx3

3. Supplemental Figure 2D: p-GPx3 and GPx3 and p-p65 and p65

4. Supplemental Figure 8D: p-GPx3 and GPx3

5. Supplemental Figure 9E: p-GPx3 and GPx3 and p-p65 and p65