Mediators of Inflammation has retracted the article titled “Neuropilin-1highCD4+CD25+ Regulatory T Cells Exhibit Primary Negative Immunoregulation in Sepsis” [1] due to figure duplication between articles by the same authors and within the article.
Figure duplication concerns were raised to our attention and then noted on PubPeer [2]. A reassessment of the article concluded that a number of panels in Figure 1(e-f) and Figure 2(c) of [1] were duplicated with panels in Figure 2 of [3]. Duplications with another article were also identified [4], where the first, second, and fourth panels of Figure 4(c) are duplicated by the seventh, eighth and ninth panels of Figure 1(e) in [1].
Duplications were also identified within the article [1]:
Panel 4 in Figure 1(e) is the same as panel 10 in Figure 2(c).
Panel 1 in Figure 1(f) is the same as panel 5 in Figure 1(f).
The authors did not provide a satisfactory response and the article is therefore being retracted with the agreement of the Chief Editor. The authors do not agree to the retraction.
References
- 1.Gao Y.-L., Chai Y.-F., Qi A.-L., et al. Neuropilin-1highCD4+CD25+ Regulatory T Cells Exhibit Primary Negative Immunoregulation in Sepsis. Mediators of Inflammation. 2016;2016:11. doi: 10.1155/2016/7132158.7132158 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.PubPeer. July 2018, https://pubpeer.com/publications/F1347D008AC3E082905B723B93E16C.
- 3.Gao Y.-L., Lu B., Zhai J.-H., et al. The Parenteral Vitamin C Improves Sepsis and Sepsis-Induced Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome via Preventing Cellular Immunosuppression. Mediators of Inflammation. 2017;2017:12. doi: 10.1155/2017/4024672.4024672 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar] [Retracted]
- 4.Gao Y., Yu M., Shou S., et al. Tuftsin prevents the negative immunoregulation of neuropilin-1highCD4+CD25+Regulatory T cells and improves survival rate in septic mice. Oncotarget. 2016;7(49):81791–81805. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.13235. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]