Could the authors comment on the background texture recurring through the bands of the Western Blot figures? Visible even after the ravages of image compression? Here, Fig 4 "E, miR-31 overexpression significantly decreased the percentage of apoptotic cells induced by Rh2 treatment. The expression of apoptosis-associated proteins also indicated the anti-apoptosis effect of miR-31 overexpression."
Although it is possible that this request will not reach the corresponding author, given the exotic choice of Gmail e-address and the inaccessibility of Gmail within mainland China.
This paper belongs to a set of over 400 papers (as per February 2020) that share very similar Western blots with tadpole-like shaped bands, the same background pattern, and striking similarities in title structures, paper layout, bar graph design, and - in a subset - flow cytometry panels. Despite these similarities, these papers are authored by researchers from different departments and institutes, with almost no overlap in authors.
The list of these papers is available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KXqTAyl4j-jVorFPMD2XRpr76LcIKJ0CVyIvRj0exYQ/edit?usp=sharing
A more detailed description of this set of papers, suspected to all be generated by a common source, a 'paper mill', can be found here:
The same paper mill has been described in these papers:
Retracted 9 June 2021.
The above article, published online on 29 January 2018 in Wiley Online Library (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jcb.26716), has been retracted by agreement between the journal's Editor in Chief, Prof. Dr. Christian Behl, and Wiley Periodicals LLC.
The retraction has been agreed following an investigation based on allegations raised by a third party. Several flaws and inconsistencies between results presented and experimental methods described were found, the editors consider the conclusions of this article to be invalid. The authors collaborated in the investigation initially, but were not available for a final confirmation of the retraction.
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