Abstract
At the request of Sage and the Journal Editor, the following article has been retracted.
Lv S, Liu L, Yang B, Zhao X. Association of miR-9-5p and NFIC in the progression of gastric cancer. Human & Experimental Toxicology. 2022;41. https://doi.org/10.1177/09603271221084671
The Journal and Sage were alerted to concerns about the use of a non-verifiable cell line in this article, by a recent publication1. The specific cell line concerns are outlined below:
- BGC-823 is described in the article as human gastric cancer cell lines. Originally thought to be gastric adenocarcinoma; the cell lines are considered contaminated, and have been shown to be a HeLa derivative.2
- SGC-7901 is described in the article as human gastric cancer cell lines. Originally thought to originate from the lymph node of a 56-year-old female patient with a gastric carcinoma; the cell lines are considered contaminated, and have been shown to be a HeLa derivative.2
- GSE-1 is described in the article as human gastric mucosal epithelial cell line. The non-verifiable cell line GSE-1 is believed to be a misspelling of GES-1.2
After an internal investigation, Sage became aware that the submission contains indicators of unauthorized third-party involvement.
Multiple attempts were made to contact the authors for an explanation, but no response was received by Sage.
Due to concerns around the involvement of an unauthorized third-party during submission and/or peer review, and concerns about the strength of the conclusions resulting from experiments that used a contaminated cell line, this article has been retracted.
References
1. Oste DJ, Pathmendra P, Richardson RAK, et al. Misspellings or “miscellings”—Non-verifiable and unknown cell lines in cancer research publications. Int J Cancer. 2024; 1-12. doi:10.1002/ijc.34995
2. Bairoch A. The Cellosaurus, a cell line knowledge resource. J Biomol Tech 2018; 29: 25–38.