TRAF4 promotes endometrial cancer cell growth and migration by activation of PI3K/AKT/Oct4 signaling
Authors: Min Kong
Pengmu Xie
Xiuling Wang
Xiuyu Bai
Tao Jiang
Journal: Experimental and molecular pathology (2019)
Discipline: CLINICAL MEDICINE
Keywords: Cell growth; Endometrial carcinoma; Migration; PI3K/AKT/Otc4 signaling; TRAF4.
Affiliations: Department of Gynecology, Jining No.1 People's Hospital, Jining 272011, China., Department of Gynecology, Jining No.1 People's Hospital, Jining 272011, China. Electronic address: .

Abstract:  This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief as panels from Figure 4A appear similar to each other. Given the comments of Dr Elisabeth Bik regarding this article ‚ÄúThis paper belongs to a set of over 400 papers (as per February 2020) that share very similar Western blots with tadpole-like shaped bands, the same background pattern, and striking similarities in title structures, paper layout, bar graph design, and - in a subset - flow cytometry panels‚Ä? the journal requested the authors to provide the raw data. However, the authors were not able to fulfil this request and therefore the Editor-in-Chief decided to retract the article. 

Retracted: Yes

PubPeer comments:
  Fig. 4. Overexpression of TRAF4 promoted cell proliferation and migration in EC cells. (A) Overexpression of TRAF4 by pc-RNA transfection showed no difference in apoptotic rate of EC cells by Annexin V-FITC PI assay. Similarities within the clouds of points in Q3 of these FACS plots make it unlikely that they came from separate experiments.  There are also substantial overlaps with the putative FACS plots appearing in Fig 3A of [Gao et al. (2019)] .   , 
 This paper belongs to a set of over 400 papers (as per February 2020) that share very similar Western blots with tadpole-like shaped bands, the same background pattern, and striking similarities in title structures, paper layout, bar graph design, and - in a subset - flow cytometry panels. Despite these similarities, these papers are authored by researchers from different departments and institutes, with almost no overlap in authors. The list of these papers is available here: https: docs.google.com spreadsheets d 1KXqTAyl4j-jVorFPMD2XRpr76LcIKJ0CVyIvRj0exYQ edit?usp=sharing A more detailed description of this set of papers, suspected to all be generated by a common source, a paper mill , can be found here: * https: forbetterscience.com 2020 01 24 the-full-service-paper-mill-and-its-chinese-customers (January 2020) * https: scienceintegritydigest.com 2020 02 21 the-tadpole-paper-mill (February 2020) The same paper mill has been described in these papers: * Jana Christopher - Systematic fabrication of scientific images revealed - FEBS Letters (2018) - https: febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com doi full 10.1002 1873-3468.13201 * Jennifer A Byrne and Jana Christopher - Digital magic, or the dark arts of the 21st centuryu2014how can journals and peer reviewers detect manuscripts and publications from paper mills? - FEBS Letters (2020) - https: febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com doi full 10.1002 1873-3468.13747 , 
 Retracted [6 July 2022] . ---------------------- This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief as panels from Figure 4A appear similar to each other. Given the comments of Dr Elisabeth Bik regarding this article u201cThis paper belongs to a set of over 400 papers (as per February 2020) that share very similar Western blots with tadpole-like shaped bands, the same background pattern, and striking similarities in title structures, paper layout, bar graph design, and - in a subset - flow cytometry panelsu201d, the journal requested the authors to provide the raw data. However, the authors were not able to fulfil this request and therefore the Editor-in-Chief decided to retract the article. ,