The following article has been retracted at the request of the Journal Editor and Publisher:
Zhao B, Lu Y-L, Yang Y, et al. Overexpression of lncRNA ANRIL promoted the proliferation and migration of prostate cancer cells via regulating let-7a/TGF-β1/Smad signaling pathway. Cancer Biomarkers. 2018;21(3):613-620. doi:10.3233/CBM-170683.
The corresponding author contacted the journal to notify them of a conversation regarding the article on PubPeer and to request a retraction.
The concerns can be summarised as follow:
A. In Figure 1C, ANRIL siRNA/LNCap, elements of the image appear to overlap with elements of Figure 5D, miRNA inhibitor NC/Invasion 1
B. In Figure 1C, ANRIL siRNA-2/DU145, elements of the image appear to overlap with elements of Figure 1(a), Mn12Ac/MCF7 2
C. In Figure 4A, NC/LNCap, the image appears highly similar to Figure 3F, Everolimus 0 nM/miR-4328 mimics 3
D. In Figure 4A, ANRIL siRNA-2/PC3, elements of the image appear to overlap with elements of Figure 3F, Everolimus 100nM/NC 3
The authors acknowledged that they had inadvertently reused images during the preparation of their articles. The authors were unable to provide the raw images on request, stating that the raw images had been damaged in storage.
Due to the unresolved concerns about the integrity of the images that call into question the validity of the findings, the Journal Editor and Sage retract the article.
The authors agreed with the decision to retract when informed.
References
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