Retraction: Jiayi Weng, Cuiping Wang, Wei Zhong, Bo Li, Zhongqun Wang, Chen Shao, Yao Chen, and Jinchuan Yan. Activation of CD137 Signaling Promotes Angiogenesis in Atherosclerosis via Modulating Endothelial Smad1/5‐NFATc1 Pathway. J Am Heart Assoc. 2017;6:e004756. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.116.004756.
The above article, published online on March 13, 2017, has been retracted by mutual agreement between the authors and the journal Editors. The retraction has been issued at the authors’ request.
After becoming aware that data in the above‐referenced article contained substantial overlap with data in a previously published article in Chinese Journal of Cardiology (Chin J Cardiol) on November 30, 2016, entitled “CD137‐CD137L signaling promotes angiogenesis in atherosclerosis plaque of mice through activating nuclear factor of activated T cells c1” (Chin J Cardiol. 2016;44:1040‐1046. doi: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.0253‐3758.2016.12.010) the Editors of Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) contacted the authors.
Specific concerns focused on duplication of figures in both articles. The top middle panel of Figure 4B (NFATc1 nucleoprotein expression) in the JAHA article appears identical to the top panel in Figure 2 of the Chin J Cardiol article (NFATc1 nucleoprotein expression). The top right panel of Figure 4B (NFATc1 and PCNA expression) in the JAHA article appears identical to the NFATc1 total protein and β‐actin protein expression in Figure 3 of the Chin J Cardiol article. The second line in Figure 1B of the JAHA article (CD31) appears to be the same data as Figure 1 of the Chin J Cardiol article at a different magnification.
The similarities between the JAHA article and the Chinese Journal of Cardiology article were not able to be satisfactorily explained. The article is thus being retracted from publication in the Journal of the American Heart Association.