Retracted: MicroRNA‐181b negatively regulates the proliferation of human epidermal keratinocytes in psoriasis through targeting TLR4
Authors: Zeng Liu
Nan-Ze Yu
Xiao-Jun Wang
Ming Bai
Cheng Feng
Journal: Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine (2017)
Discipline: MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & GENETICS
Keywords: TLR4; Western blotting; immunohistochemistry; keratinocytes; microRNA-181b
Affiliations: Aesthetic Plastic Department of Peking Union Medical Collage Hospital, Beijing, China.

Abstract:  Our study aims to explore the role of microRNA-181b (miR-181b) and TLR in the regulation of cell proliferation of human epidermal keratinocytes (HEKs) in psoriasis. Twenty-eight patients diagnosed with psoriasis vulgaris were selected as a case group with their lesional and non-lesional skin tissues collected. A control group consisted of 20 patients who underwent plastic surgery with their healthy skin tissues collected. Real-time quantitative fluorescence polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expressions of miR-181b and TLR4 in HEKs of healthy skin, psoriatic lesional skin and non-lesional skin respectively. The 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of TLR4 combined with miR-181b was verified by a dual-luciferase reporter assay. Western blotting and bromodeoxyuridine were applied for corresponding detection of TLR4 expression and cell mitosis. The expression of miR-181b in HEKs of psoriatic lesional skin was less than healthy skin and psoriatic non-lesional skin. In psoriatic lesional and non-lesional skin, TLR4-positive cell rates and the number of positive cells per square millimetre were higher than healthy skin. The dual-luciferase reporter assay verified that miR-181b targets TLR4. HEKs transfected with miR-181b mimics had decreased expression of TLR4, along with the decrease of mitotic indexes and Brdu labelling indexes. However, HEKs transfected with miR-181b inhibitors showed increased TLR4 expression, mitotic indexes and Brdu labelling indexes. HEKs transfected with both miR-181b inhibitors and siTLR4 had decreased mitotic indexes and Brdu labelling indexes. These results indicate that miR-181b can negatively regulate the proliferation of HEKs in psoriasis by targeting TLR4. 

Retracted: Yes

PubPeer comments:
 Retracted [26 February 2021] .  The above article from Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, published online on 19 September 2016 on Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) in Volume 21, pp. 278-285, has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editor-in-Chief and John Wiley Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed after notification from the authors. The authors evaluated additional patients with psoriasis vulgaris after the publication of this paper. In the expanded study, it was found that the expression level of microRNA-181b did not show a significant decrease in keratinocytes in patients with dandruff. It has been concluded that the result in the published paper is not valid due to the small number of cases studied in the initial study in 2013-2015. Fig 1A. I just want to suggest that sample size might not be the only reason why retraction was appropriate for this paper. ![file] , 
 Fig 2. ![file] ,