The above-cited article has been retracted by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the publisher of Diabetes. This article was previously the subject of an expression of concern in August 2016 (Diabetes 2016;65:2462. DOI: 10.2337/db16-ec08a. PMID: 27456623). An updated amendment to this article was also published in November 2018 (Diabetes 2018;67:2479–2480. DOI: 10.2337/db18-ec2018b. PMID: 30213822).
In September 2018, ADA’s Panel on Ethical Scientific Programs (ESP) contacted the University of Zurich, the lead and corresponding authors’ institution at the time the research was conducted, to request an institutional investigation into the possible duplication of several images presented in this article. The University’s review is ongoing.
The ESP has since coordinated an independent review of the issues described in the amendments. On the basis of its review, the ESP has determined that the following instances of image duplication compromise the overall reliability of the study.
In a 2009 PLOS ONE article (PLoS ONE 2009;4:e4394. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004394), lanes 1 and 2 of the “b-Actin” panel in Fig. 1A appear to be the same as lanes 2 and 3 of the “Actin 42 kDa” panel in Fig. 3G of this article. It should be noted that a correction to replace Fig. 1A in the PLOS ONE article was published in May 2015 (PLoS ONE 2015;10:e0117766. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117766).
Lane 4 of the PDX1 panel in Fig. 1E of a 2011 article in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (J Biol Chem 2011;286:17144–17155. DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M110.210526) closely resembles lane 1 of the FLIP 55KDa panel of Fig. 3D of this 2006 Diabetes article. In addition, lane 8 of the PDX1 panel of Fig. 1E of the Journal of Biological Chemistry article closely resembles lane 5 of the FLIP 55KDa panel in Fig. 3D of this Diabetes article. The Journal of Biological Chemistry article was retracted in November 2015 (DOI: 10.1074/jbc.A110.210526).
Lanes 2, 4, and 6 of the “Actin 42 kDa” panel of Fig. 3D appear to be duplicates.
Lanes 3–6 of the “Actin 42 kDA” strip of Fig. 3B of this article and lanes 3–6 of the “Actin, 96 h” strip in Fig. 3D of Diabetes 55:2455–2462, with horizontal rotation and contrast and size adjustments, appear to be duplicates.
ADA, as the publisher of Diabetes, has chosen to retract this publication upon the recommendation of the ESP. Information about ADA’s review policies and procedures can be found at diabetesjournals.org/content/journal-policies.