Overexpression and clinical significance of MYC-associated zinc finger protein in pancreatic carcinoma
Authors: Chao Tan
Yuan Ren
Xiaonian Zhu
Chunhua Bei
Wenjin Liang
Ying Zhang
Wei Luo
Shengkui Tan
Fen Tang
Linyuan Qin
Journal: OncoTargets and Therapy (2016)
Discipline: CLINICAL MEDICINE
Keywords: MYC-associated zinc finger protein; cell proliferation; pancreatic carcinoma; prognosis.
Affiliations: School of Public Health, Guilin Medical University, Guilin, People's Republic of China., Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, People's Republic of China., Department of Hepatology, Nanxishan Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guilin, People's Republic of China.

Abstract:  This study aimed to investigate the expression and clinical significance of MYC-associated zinc finger protein (MAZ) in pancreatic carcinoma (PC), and the biological functions of MAZ in PC cells. MAZ expression was detected in 57 PC tissues and 41 paired adjacent nontumor tissues by immunohistochemistry. Compared to the expression in adjacent nontumor tissues, MAZ was significantly higher expressed in PC tissues (P&lt;0.0001). In addition, MAZ expression had a significant correlation with certain clinical characteristics of PC patients, such as age, tumor diameter, tumor number, and the serum level of CA199 (P&lt;0.05). The survival analysis showed that the survival time of PC patients with high expression of MAZ was significantly lower than patients with low expression of MAZ (P=0.0365). After MAZ was knocked down in PANC-1 cells by RNA interference, the cells' ability to proliferate, invade, and migrate was decreased significantly (P&lt;0.01). Moreover, MAZ expression was found to be associated with Ki-67, a cell proliferation marker, in PC tissues, further supporting the idea that MAZ promotes PC cell proliferation. Our study clarifies an oncogenic role of MAZ in pathogenesis of PC and provides MAZ as a biomarker in the treatment and prognosis of PC. 

Retracted: Yes

PubPeer comments:
 2020 retraction. https: www.dovepress.com retraction-overexpression-and-clinical-significance-of-myc-associated--peer-reviewed-article-OTT Zhu X, Luo W, Liang W, et al. Onco Targets Ther. 2016;9:7493u2014 7501. The Editor-in Chief and Publisher of OncoTargets and Therapy wish to retract the published article. Concerns were raised that images shown in Figure 4A of the published article appeared to have been duplicated with images shown in Figure 2d of the article u2018Correlations between chromobox homolog 8 and key factors of epithelialu2013mesenchymal transition in hepatocellular carcinomau2019 published in Cancer Cell International . Specifically, it appears the following images may have been duplicated: u25cf Figure 4A PANC-1 Invasion shGFP appears duplicated with Figure 2d SK-Hep-1 Invasion shCBX8-3# u25cf Figure 4A PANC-1 Migration shGFP appears duplicated with Figure 2d SK-Hep-1 Invasion shGFP u25cf Figure 4A PANC-1 Migration shMAZ-2# appears duplicated with Figure 2d SK-Hep-1 Invasion shCBX8-1# The editor was concerned the articles were published three years apart and the article published in OncoTargets and Therapy described a study investigating pancreatic carcinoma, while the article published in Cancer Cell International described a study investigating hepatocellular carcinoma. There were also concerns it appeared the same images were used to show results for two different cell lines, PANC-1 and SK-Hep-1. The authors could not provide a satisfactory explanation for why it appeared the same images had been used to show results from two different cell lines. The authors were also unable to provide satisfactory raw data for their study and the editor determined the studies finding were no longer valid. The authors wish to apologise for this error. Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction. The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as u201cRetractedu201d. ,