On the basis of the recommendation of the American Diabetes Association’s Panel on Ethical Scientific Programs (ESP), the American Diabetes Association, the publisher of Diabetes, is issuing this expression of concern to alert readers to questions about the reliability of the data in the above-cited article.

After readers of the journal contacted Diabetes about potentially duplicated images in the article, the ESP reviewed the following issues:

  • The IB:Tub strip in Fig. 1B (LH) appears to have been previously published, with horizontal rotation, in the following article:

  • Rocha et al. Clin Cancer Res 2011;17:3993–4005. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-10-2243. PMID: 21543517 (Fig. 4D, IB:mTOR strip)

  • The IB:Tub strip in Fig. 1G (LH) appears to have been previously published, with horizontal rotation, in the following articles:

  • Ropelle et al. PLoS Biol 2010;8:e1000465. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000465. PMID: 20808781 (Fig. 8H, IB:α-tubulin, lanes 3–5)

  • Flores et al. Gastroenterology 2012;143:741–753.e1–e4. DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2012.05.045. PMID: 22677195 (Fig. 2D, IB:β-tubulin, lanes 2–4)

  • This image may have been subsequently republished, with adjustments made to size, brightness, and contrast, in three other articles representing different experiments:

    • Barbosa et al. Int J Cardiol 2013;167:2983-2988. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2012.08.050. PMID: 22989604 (Fig. 1B, IB:eNOS, lanes 3–5)

    • Chiarreotto-Ropelle et al. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2013;305:E649–E659. DOI: 10.1152/ajpendo.00272.2013. PMID: 23880311 (Fig. 5B, IB:α-tubulin, lanes 3–5)

    • Souza Pauli et al. J Physiol 2014;592(Pt. 6):1325–1340. DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2013.264002. PMID: 24396063 (Fig. 3B, IB:β-actin, lanes 3–5)

  • In Fig. 2A, the second lane displayed for medial hypothalamus (MH) appears to be a duplicate of the first lane for paraventricular nucleus (PVN), with horizontal rotation.

  • The IB:Tub strip in Fig. 6B (Arc) appears to have been previously published in the following articles:

  • Rocha et al. Clin Cancer Res 2011;17:3993–4005. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-10-2243. PMID: 21543517 (Fig. 4B, IB:p53, lanes 2–5)

  • Flores et al. Gastroenterology 2012;143:741–753.e1–e4. DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2012.05.045. PMID: 22677195 (Fig. 3E, IB:pAKT, with horizontal rotation)

  • The IB:Tub strip in Fig. 6B (PVN) appears to be a duplicate, with size and contrast adjustments, of the IB:pIRβTyr1162/1163 strip of Fig. 2A in the following 2010 PLOS Biology article:

  • Ropelle et al. PLoS Biol 2010; 8:e1000465. DOI: 10.1371//journal.pbio.1000465. PMID: 20808781

The Panel has contacted the corresponding author to inform him of these concerns, and the corresponding author’s institution, the University of Campinas (São Paulo, Brazil), has been asked to undertake an investigation of these issues. Diabetes will make a final decision on the publication status of this article after the journal obtains more information on the reliability of the data and conclusions presented in the article.

Diabetes is a member journal of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (publicationethics.org). As such, the editors of the journal and the ESP refer to COPE’s guidelines and recommendations when reviewing such matters.

© 2016 by the American Diabetes Association. Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered.
2016