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Open Access

Retraction

Retraction: Inhibition of tumor vasculogenic mimicry and prolongation of host survival in highly aggressive gallbladder cancers by Norcantharidin via blocking the ephrin type a receptor 2/focal adhesion kinase/paxillin signaling pathway

  • The PLOS One Editors

After this article [1] was published, concerns were raised regarding results presented in Figs 2, 3, 6, and 7.

Specifically

  • The following panels appear to partially overlap despite representing different experimental conditions:
    1. Fig 2A TIMP-2 panel and NCTD panel flipped horizontally
    2. Fig 2B TIMP-2 panel and NCTD panel flipped vertically
    3. Fig 3 Control 1d, TIMP-2 1d, and NCTD 1d panels
    4. Fig 3 TIMP-2 1w panel and Control 2w panel flipped vertically
    5. Fig 3 NCTD 1w and NCTD 2w panels
  • Fig 7A EphA2 Control panel: when color levels are adjusted, there appear to be regions where the background signal does not match the surrounding areas
  • The following results appear similar despite representing different experimental conditions:
    1. ◦. Fig 7A TIMP-2 EphA2 panel of [1] and Fig 9 TIMP-2 MM1-MMP panel of [2] rotated 90 degrees
    2. ◦. Fig 7A NCTD EphA2 panel of [1] and Fig 9 NCTD MM1-MMP panel of [2] flipped vertically
    3. ◦. Fig 7A Control FAK panel of [1] and Fig 9 Control MMP-2 panel of [2] rotated 90 degrees
    4. ◦. Fig 7A NCTD FAK panel in [1] and Fig 9 NCTD MMP-2 panel of [2] flipped horizontally
    5. ◦. Fig 7A TIMP-2 Paxillin panel of [1] and Fig 9 Control MM1-MMP panel of [2]
    6. ◦. Fig 7B EphA2 panel of [1] and Fig 10A MM1-MMP panel of [2] flipped vertically and with altered contrast
    7. ◦. Fig 7B Paxillin-P panel of [1] and Fig 10A MMP-2 panel of [2]
    8. ◦. Fig 7B β-actin panel of [1] and Fig 10A β-actin of [2]
    9. ◦. Fig 7B β-actin panel of [1]: lanes 1 and 2 appear similar to lanes 5 and 6
  • The images in Fig 6B of [1] appear similar to images in Fig 3A of [2] which appear to represent the same experimental conditions
  • Fig 2C Control panel of [1] appears similar to Fig 3B b3 GBC-SD panel in a later article [3]

The authors did not respond to editorial requests for a response and underlying data. In light of the above unresolved concerns that question the integrity and reliability of the reported results and conclusions, the PLOS One Editors retract this article.

All authors either did not respond directly or could not be reached.

References

  1. 1. Wang H, Sun W, Zhang WZ, Ge CY, Zhang JT, Liu ZY, et al. Inhibition of tumor vasculogenic mimicry and prolongation of host survival in highly aggressive gallbladder cancers by norcantharidin via blocking the ephrin type a receptor 2/focal adhesion kinase/paxillin signaling pathway. PLoS One. 2014;9(5):e96982. pmid:24811250
  2. 2. Zhang JT, Sun W, Zhang WZ, Ge CY, Liu ZY, Zhao ZM, et al. Norcantharidin inhibits tumor growth and vasculogenic mimicry of human gallbladder carcinomas by suppression of the PI3-K/MMPs/Ln-5γ2 signaling pathway. BMC Cancer. 2014;14:193. pmid:24628713
  3. 3. Pan MS, Wang H, Ansari KH, Li XP, Sun W, Fan YZ. Gallbladder cancer-associated fibroblasts promote vasculogenic mimicry formation and tumor growth in gallbladder cancer via upregulating the expression of NOX4, a poor prognosis factor, through IL-6-JAK-STAT3 signal pathway. J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2020;39(1):234. pmid:33153467

Citation: The PLOS One Editors (2025) Retraction: Inhibition of tumor vasculogenic mimicry and prolongation of host survival in highly aggressive gallbladder cancers by Norcantharidin via blocking the ephrin type a receptor 2/focal adhesion kinase/paxillin signaling pathway. PLoS ONE 20(2): e0319593. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319593

Published: February 20, 2025

Copyright: © 2025 . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.