Ligustrazine promoted hypoxia-treated cell growth by upregulation of miR-135b in human umbilical vein endothelial cells
Authors: Hui Wang
Shujing Wei
Journal: Experimental and molecular pathology (2019)
Discipline: CLINICAL MEDICINE
Keywords: Hypoxia; JNK/SAPK, PI3K/AKT/mTOR; Ligustrazine; Pressure ulcers; miR-135b.
Affiliations: Operating Room, Jining No.1 People's Hospital, Jining 272011, China; Affiliated Jining No.1 People's Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining Medical University, Jining 272067, China., Operating Room, Jining No.1 People's Hospital, Jining 272011, China; Affiliated Jining No.1 People's Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining Medical University, Jining 272067, China. Electronic address: .

Abstract:  Background: Pressure ulcers are a kind of troublesome disease which caused by long-term pressure and subsequently lead to tissue festering necrosis because of sustained ischemia, hypoxia and malnutrition. In our study, we used hypoxia to stimulate human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to mimic pressure ulcers and investigated the effects of Ligustrazine (Lig) with multi-activities on HUVECs. Methods: HUVECs were treated by hypoxia to induce cell injury. HUVECs were administrated with Lig and/or transfected with miR-135b inhibitor or negative control. Cell viability and cell apoptosis were detected by Cell Counting kit-8 assay and flow cytometry, respectively. The protein expression of Cyclin D1 and p53, the apoptosis-related proteins (Bcl-2, Bax, pro-/Cleaved-Caspas-3), and the JNK/SAPK and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways related proteins was examined by western blot. Results: Hypoxia-induced injury presented by decreasing cell viability and increasing cell apoptosis. Then Lig administration enhanced cell viability and inhibited cell apoptosis. Importantly, miR-135b was upregulated by the treatment of Lig. Further studies revealed that transfection with miR-135b inhibitor led to the opposite result with decreasing cell viability and increasing cell apoptosis. In addition, Lig increased the phosphorylation of JNK, SAPK, PI3K, AKT and mTOR. Conclusion: Lig promoted hypoxia-treated HUVECs cell growth as evidenced by increasing cell viability and reducing cell apoptosis. This process might be modulated by upregulation of miR-135b and subsequent activation of JNK/SAPK and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 Above: Fig 2  (E) Cell apoptosis was examined by flow cytometry for conditions of Control, Hypoxia, Hyp + Lig. Below: Fig 4  (E) Cell apoptosis was examined by flow cytometry for conditions of Control, Hypoxia, Hyp + Lig, Hyp + Lig + NC, Hyp + Lig + mIR-135b Inhib . The two Hypoxia plots match in the 3rd 4th quadrants but differ in the locations of the sparsely-scattered cells in Q1 and Q2. The Fig 2  Hyp + Lig plot matches Fig 4  Hyp + Lig + NC , in Q3 and Q4 but not in Q1 and Q2. ![file] The similarities among the hairball point-clouds in each Q3 go much further than that, and they are unlikely to have come from separate experiments! ![file] ![file] , 
 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 - [5 July 2022] . No credit for Hoya *[sad emoji]* ----------------- This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief as panels from Figure 2E appear similar to panels from Figure 4E. 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. ,