Clinical Significance of SLP-2 in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Tissues and Its Regulation in Cancer Cell Proliferation, Migration, and EMT [Retraction]

Huang Y, Chen Y, Lin X, Lin Q, Han M, Guo G. Onco Targets Ther. 2017;10:4665–4673.

At the authors request, the Editor and Publisher of OncoTargets and Therapy wish to retract the published article. Concerns were raised to the authors regarding the alleged duplication of images in Figure 3 and the incorrect primer information provided for the quantitative reverse transcription PCR section of the material and methods. Specifically,

• Figure 3A, HCCLM3, Blank, appears to have been duplicated with the same image from Figure 3A, HCCLM3, NC and Figure 3B, HCCLM3, NC.
• Figure 3E, HepG2, Actin bands, appear to have been duplicated with images of the same bands for Figure 3E, HCCLM3, Actin.
• The details provided for the SLP-2 forward and reverse primers for the quantitative reverse transcription PCR appear to be incorrect and are not for SLP-2.

The authors were unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the duplicated images, nor could they provide the original data for their study and were unable to support the integrity of the research. The authors requested to retract the article and the Editor agreed with this.

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The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.