Advertisement
Browse Subject Areas
?

Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field.

For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click here.

  • Loading metrics

Open Access

Retraction

Retraction: E. adenophorum Induces Cell Cycle and Apoptosis of Renal Cells through Mitochondrial Pathway and Caspase Activation in Saanen Goat

  • The PLOS One Editors

Following the publication of this article [1], concerns have been raised about Fig 2-6. Specifically:

  • There appear to be repetitive areas within or between the following panels:
    • In Fig 2B, all DAPI panels
    • In Fig 2B, the AO/EB 600g/kg and 800g/kg panels
    • In Fig 6A, the 600g/kg panel
  • In Fig 2B, when levels are adjusted to visualize background of the AO/EB panels, the areas surrounding multiple cells appear to be discontinuous with adjacent areas of background.
  • When the aspect ratio is altered, the following bands appear more similar than would be expected from independent results:
    • ◦ Lane 3 of the Fig 3A β-actin panel and lane 1 of the Fig 4A Bcl-2 panel.
    • ◦ Lanes 1-2 of the Fig 4A Bcl-2 panel and lanes 1-2 of the Fig 4D β-actin panel.
    • ◦ Lanes 1-3 of the Fig 5C Cytoplasm Cyt c panel in [1] and lanes 2-4 of the Fig 5A AMPK panel in DU145 cells in [2] (retracted in [3]).
  • In Fig 5C, there appear to be vertical and horizontal discontinuities in the background of the Mitochondrion Cty c panel.

In addition to the above concerns, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approval number cited in this article (DKY-B20100805) has also been cited in multiple other articles that PLOS is aware of by different authors, published between 2012 and 2019 in [4–12], which report different research objectives in different species of animals.

The Fig 5C Cytoplasm Cyt c panel in [1] appears similar to content previously published in [2] (retracted in [3]) under a CC BY-NC 3.0 license. The reused content was modified. The Fig 5C Cytoplasm Cyt c panel in [1] is subject to the license that applies to the original article.

The authors did not respond to queries about these concerns. In the absence of underlying data, the above issues remain unresolved.

In light of the above unresolved concerns that question the reliability and integrity of these results, the PLOS One Editors retract this article [1].

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

References

  1. 1. He Y, Chen W, Hu Y, Luo B, Wu L, Qiao Y, et al. E. adenophorum Induces Cell Cycle and Apoptosis of Renal Cells through Mitochondrial Pathway and Caspase Activation in Saanen Goat. PLoS One. 2015;10(9):e0138504. pmid:26382060
  2. 2. Zhou Z-W, Li X-X, He Z-X, Pan S-T, Yang Y, Zhang X, et al. Induction of apoptosis and autophagy via sirtuin1- and PI3K/Akt/mTOR-mediated pathways by plumbagin in human prostate cancer cells. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2015;9:1511–54. pmid:25834399
  3. 3. Induction of Apoptosis and Autophagy via sirtuin1- and PI3K/Akt/mTOR-Mediated Pathways by Plumbagin in Human Prostate Cancer Cells [Retraction]. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2022;16:2437–8. pmid:35937567
  4. 4. Ren Z, Yao R, Liu Q, Deng Y, Shen L, Deng H, et al. Effects of antibacterial peptides on rumen fermentation function and rumen microorganisms in goats. PLoS One. 2019;14(8):e0221815. pmid:31469857
  5. 5. Wan L, Ma J, Wang N, Wang D, Xu G. Molecular cloning and characterization of different expression of MYOZ2 and MYOZ3 in Tianfu goat. PLoS One. 2013;8(12):e82550. pmid:24367523
  6. 6. Jin L, Zhang M, Ma J, Zhang J, Zhou C, Liu Y, et al. Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates the local origin of domestic pigs in the upstream region of the Yangtze River. PLoS One. 2012;7(12):e51649. pmid:23272130
  7. 7. Gu Y, Li M, Wang T, Liang Y, Zhong Z, Wang X, et al. Lactation-related microRNA expression profiles of porcine breast milk exosomes. PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e43691. pmid:22937080
  8. 8. Chen B, Li D, Li M, Li S, Peng K, Shi X, et al. Induction of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis and PI3K/Akt/ mTOR-mediated autophagy by aflatoxin B2 in hepatocytes of broilers. Oncotarget. 2016;7(51):84989–98. pmid:27863407
  9. 9. Chen JL, Zheng P, Zhang C, Yu B, He J, Yu J, et al. Benzoic acid beneficially affects growth performance of weaned pigs which was associated with changes in gut bacterial populations, morphology indices and growth factor gene expression. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). 2017;101(6):1137–46. pmid:27747941
  10. 10. Wan L, Ma J, Xu G, Wang D, Wang N. Molecular cloning, structural analysis and tissue expression of protein phosphatase 3 catalytic subunit alpha isoform (PPP3CA) gene in Tianfu goat muscle. Int J Mol Sci. 2014;15(2):2346–58. pmid:24514563
  11. 11. Hu Y, Wu L, Wang C, Luo J, Liao F, Tan H, et al. Swainsonine exposure induces impairment of host immune response in pregnant BALB/c mice. BMC Immunol. 2015;16:53. pmid:26335138
  12. 12. Li W, Li G, Zhong Z, Xie B, Zhou Z, Gu W, et al. Validation of an HPLC assay for determination of Telazol in pregnant pigs: application to placental transfer study. J Vet Med Sci. 2017;79(4):801–6. pmid:28302956

Citation: The PLOS One Editors (2025) Retraction: E. adenophorum Induces Cell Cycle and Apoptosis of Renal Cells through Mitochondrial Pathway and Caspase Activation in Saanen Goat. PLoS One 20(11): e0336816. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0336816

Published: November 17, 2025

Copyright: © 2025 The PLOS One Editors. 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.