This article has been retracted: The journal’s investigation was initiated following a retraction request from the corresponding author Chenghai Wang. The stated reason for this request was “misquoted a fund (Chinese National Nature Science Foundation, No. 81471547).” Our investigation by the Scientific Integrity office identified further concerns:

  • Image forensics analysis found image manipulations, including blurring and splicing, in the Western blot (WB) images presented in Figure 6D.

  • The WB images used in Figure 4D were reused from Figure 6D of a paper published in Aging in 2020 [1], which shares one co-author, Chenghai Wang.

The Scientific Integrity office attempted to contact the authors regarding these concerns but did not receive a reply. The editorial decision was made to retract the article, and the authors were notified of this decision.

References