Abstract

The following article has been retracted at the request of the Journal Editor-in-Chief and Publisher:
Fiore APZP, Fuziwara CS, Kimura ET. High Iodine Concentration Attenuates RET/PTC3 Oncogene Activation in Thyroid Follicular Cells. Thyroid®. 2009;19(11):1249–1256. doi: 10.1089/thy.2008.0408
The Editor-in-Chief was made aware of a PubPeer comment which raised the following concern regarding the article:
In Figure 3A, the first panel in the Braf 48 hours lane appears to be highly similar to the fourth lane in the Braf 48 hour and the first, third and fourth panel in the Braf 72 hours lane. In Figure 3A, the first and second panels in the pRet 48 hours lane appear to be highly similar to the first and second panels in the pRet 72 hours lane. In Figure 3A, the third and fourth panels in the pRet 48 hours lane appear to be highly similar to the third and fourth panels in the pRet 72 hours lane. In Figure 3A, the first and third panels in the Erk 48 hours lane appear to be highly similar to the the first and third panels in the Erk 72 hours lane. In Figure 3A, the fourth panel in the pErk 48 hours lane appears to be highly similar to the first panel in the pErk72 hours lane. In Figure 3A, all the panels in the α-tubulin lane appear highly similar to each other.
When contacted for comments, the corresponding author acknowledged the inconsistencies in the figure in question and requested to correct the article and remove the figure. The author provided some files associated with other images in the article but confirmed that the raw images underlying these figure panels could not be located.
Following review by the Journal Editor and the Publisher and due to the unresolved concerns about image integrity that call into question the validity of the findings the Thyroid Editor-in-Chief and the publisher retracts the article.
Authors agreed with the retraction.
