Decreased expression of ferroportin in prostate cancer
Authors: Hao Lu
Yun-Bo Shi
Cui-Xing Zhou
Xiao-Zhou He
Dong Xue
Journal: Oncology Letters (2015)
Discipline: CLINICAL MEDICINE
Keywords: benign prostatic hyperplasia; ferroportin; hepcidin; prostate cancer.

Abstract:  The present study examined the expression levels of ferroportin, a transmembrane protein that transports iron from the inside of a cell to the outside, in the prostate cancer PC3, DU145 and LNCAP cell lines, in the normal prostate RWPE2 cell line, and in tissue samples from different differentiation stages of prostatic carcinoma and prostatic hyperplasia. The study also investigated the role of ferroportin protein expression in the diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis were employed to measure the mRNA and protein expression levels of ferroportin in the PC3, DU145, LNCAP and RWPE2 cells. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine ferroportin protein expression in the prostate cancer and prostatic hyperplasia tissues. Compared with the normal prostate RWPE2 cells, ferroportin protein expression was significantly lower in the prostate cancer PC3, DU145 and LNCAP cells (P&lt;0.05). Compared with the prostatic hyperplasia tissues, ferroportin protein expression was significantly reduced in the prostate cancer tissues (P&lt;0.05). Overall, the expression levels of ferroportin in the prostate cancer tissues were lower than those in the normal prostate tissues, which may provide valuable clinical information for the diagnosis and prediction of disease progression in prostate cancer, and may indicate a potential therapeutic target for treating prostate cancer by regulating iron metabolism. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 This paper was found during a systematic search of papers in this journal with possible duplicated images. Fifteen papers in this journal (n=98 examined) were found to contain inappropriately duplicated images. These papers have all been reported to the journal publisher in 2017. The editors promised to  investigate promptly but no action has been taken as of today. Figure 1. Panels C and D appear to show an area of overlap. ![file] , 
 Corrigendum: [4 February 2021] . -------------------------------------- Following the publication of the above article, an interested reader drew to the authorsu2019 attention that, in Fig. 1 on p. 914, the data panels selected for Fig 1C and D showing the expression of ferroportin protein in tissue samples for moderately differentiated and poorly differentiated prostate cancer, respectively, contained overlapping information and were ultimately derived from the same original source. The authors reu2011examined their original data, and realized that the wrong data were selected for Fig. 1D. The corrected version of Fig. 1, featuring the correct data panel for Fig. 1D (showing poorlyu2011differentiated prostate cancer), is shown opposite. Note that the correction made to this figure does not affect the overall conclusions reported in the paper. The authors are grateful to the Editor of Oncology Letters for allowing them the opportunity to publish this corrigendum, and apologize to the readership for any inconvenience caused. , 
 Thank you for the update, Hoya. I was the  interested reader and reported this concern to the journal publisher (Spandidos) in August 2020. However, I was not notified about this correction. ,