RETRACTED: Angiotensin-converting enzyme I/D gene polymorphism affects early cardiac response to professional training in young footballers

The following article has been retracted at the request of the Journal Editor and Publisher:

Saber-Ayad MM, Nassar YS and Latif IA. Angiotensin-converting enzyme I/D gene polymorphism affects early cardiac response to professional training in young footballers. Journal of the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System 2014; 15(3): 236–242. DOI: 10.1177/1470320312471150.

Sage was alerted to a PubPeer post highlighting potential duplication across figures in the article.

Concerns were raised about the following figures in the article:

1. In Figure 1, lane 1: ‘DNA marker’ appears to be duplicated in Figure 2, lane 3: ‘DNA marker.’

2. In Figure 1, lanes 3: ‘Homozygous II genotype’, 4 and 5: ‘I genotype’ appear identical.

3. In Figure 1, lanes 2: ‘Homozygous D/D genotype’, 4 and ‘D genotype’ appear identical.

4. In Figure 2, sample lanes 1 and 2 appear highly similar.

The authors confirmed that the ‘DNA marker’ appeared in both Figure 1 and 2. The authors were unable to provide the uncropped raw images underlying these figure panels and were unable to resolve the remaining concerns raised.

Due to the lack of raw images and unresolved concerns about image integrity that call into question the validity of the findings the Journal Editor and Sage retracts the article.

The authors did not respond to the decision to retract.