Retraction for Gilkes et al., Hypoxia-inducible factors mediate coordinated RhoA-ROCK1 expression and signaling in breast cancer cells

Medical Sciences Retraction for “Hypoxia-inducible factors mediate coordinated RhoA-ROCK1 expression and signaling in breast cancer cells,” by Daniele M. Gilkes, Lisha Xiang, Sun Joo Lee, Pallavi Chaturvedi, Maimon E. Hubbi, Denis Wirtz, and Gregg L. Semenza, which was first published December 9, 2013; 10.1073/pnas.1321510111 (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 111, E384–E393).

The undersigned authors note, “We are retracting this article due to concerns with several of the published figures. Details of the concerns include: Possible duplication of data between lanes 1–2, 4, and 5–7 of the HIF2α panel of Figure 1D and lanes 1–2, 3, and 4–6 of the HIF2α panel of Figure 3B, respectively. In Figure 2B: possible duplication of data between lanes 8 and 10 of the HIF1α panel; possible splicing between lanes 8 and 9 of the RhoA panel; and possible duplication of data between lanes 6 and 9, and between lanes 8 and 10 of the ROCK1 panel. Possible duplication of data between the full ROCK1 panel of Figure 2B and the full pFAK panel of Figure 5D. Possible duplication of data between the full Actin panel of Figure 3B and the full Actin panel of Figure S3E. Additionally, possible duplication of data between lanes 2–5 of these panels and lanes 1–4 of the Actin panel of Figure S3D. Possible duplication of data between lanes 1 and 2 of the HIF1α panel of Figure 5C. Possible duplication of data between lanes 1 and 4 of the Total FAK panel of Figure 6A, including an unusual oval shape around the band in lane 4. Possible obscuring of data in the shEV 1% O₂ stiff panel and in the sh1/2α 20% O₂ stiff panel of Figure 6E. We believe that the overall conclusions of the paper remain valid, but we are retracting the work due to these underlying concerns about the figures. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Lisha Xiang, Pallavi Chaturvedi, Denis Wirtz and Gregg L. Semenza