RETRACTED: High-level expression and purification of recombinant huGM-CSF (9–127)/IL-6 (29–184) fusion protein in Escherichia coil

This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief and authors.The article was published previously in substantially identical form in another journal prior to appearing in Protein Expression and Purification. The authors deeply regret this duplication and wish to withdraw the article from publication. The article was published previously in Sheng Wu Gong Cheng Xue Bao [Refolding and purification of the huGM-CSF(9-127)-IL-6(29-184) fusion protein, Sun QM, Liu HY, Dai CB, Ma YB, Sun MS, Xu WM. Sheng Wu Gong Cheng Xue Bao (Chinese Journal of Biotechnology) 2002 May;18(3):291-294]. Chinese. PMID: 12192859.     

Expression of Concern: Pari,L. and Rajarajeswari,N. (2011). Antioxidant role of coumarin on streptozotocin–nicotinamide‐induced type 2 diabetic rats. J. Biochem. Mol. Toxicol., 25: 355‐361. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbt.20395

This expression of concern is for the above article, published online on May 31, 2011, in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ), and has been published by agreement between the journal Editor‐in‐Chief, Dr Hari K. Bhat, and Wiley Periodicals, LLC. This expression of concern has been issued following concerns raised regarding the appearance of Figure 4A and the narrow range of standard deviations presented in Tables 1 and 2. The authors and the authors' institution failed to respond to a request from the Publisher and the Editor‐in‐Chief to investigate whether the images and data arose from the originally reported experiments, are unmodified, and are suitable for publication. As a result, the journal is issuing this expression of concern to readers.     

Retraction

Retraction: “HCFU inhibits cervical cancer cells growth and metastasis by inactivating Wnt/β-catenin pathway” from Journal of Cellular Biochemistry by Ping Liu, Shuying Ma, Hua Liu, Huazhen Han, and Shanshan Wang published online on 12 December 2017 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been withdrawn by agreement between the journal Editor in Chief Gary S. Stein and John Wiley and Sons, Inc. The retraction has been agreed because the authors are not responding to requests to finalize their article for publication in the journal as the Version of Record.     

Retraction statement: The protective effects of propofol against renal ischemia-reperfusion injury are potentiated by norisoboldine treatment via inhibition of oxidative stress pathways

The following article, published online on 31 October 2021 in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editor in Chief, Hari Bhat, and Wiley Periodicals, LLC. Following publication, concerns were raised by authors regarding Figure 2. The retraction has been agreed because of concerns that the figures were duplicated and/or manipulated, affecting the interpretation of the data and results presented.     

Tension receptors on the apodemes of muscles in the walking legs of the crab,Cancer magister †

1. Mechanoreceptors monitoring tension in working muscles are described in the Decapoda Crustacea.

2. The receptors are associated with apodemes of muscles in the walking leg and are well‐developed in the extensor and flexor of the meropodite (Figures 1, 2).

3. The unbranched dendrites of the receptor neurones innervate the tissues surrounding the insertions of the muscle fibres (Figures 3, 4, 5(A)).

4. The receptors show spontaneous activity with the M‐C joint at resting position and this activity increases when the muscle is stretched by holding the joint at a different position (Figure 7).

5. Isometric tension increase in the muscle recruits sensory units (Figures 8, 10(A)) and increases the activity of units firing (Figure 9).

6. Apodeme receptors may be an entirely distinct input channel from chordotonal organs (Figure 10(B,C)). Joint movements produced by a standard muscle stimulus against increasing loads reveal very different responses (Figure 11).

7. Attempts to determine whether chordotonal organs (CP1, Figures 5(B), 6) monitor isometric muscle tension (Figure 12) suggest possible complexities in their dynamic responses.

8. Abbreviations used in this paper are FASN flexor apodeme sensory nerve, EASN extensor apodeme sensory nerve, BASN bender apodeme sensory nerve, and OASN opener apodeme sensory nerve.     

Withdrawal: Muscle-derived Satellite Cells for Treating Type 1 Diabetes in Rats (Rattus norvegicus)

The above article from Journal of Cellular Physiology, “Muscle-derived Satellite Cells for Treating Type 1 Diabetes in Rats (Rattus norvegicus)” by Yu Ren, Hefei Wang, Si Ha, Xingsheng Zhao, Xiao Wang, Yu Lan and Xiaoling Liu published online on 10 January 2018 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been withdrawn by agreement between the journal Editor in Chief Gary S. Stein and John Wiley and Sons, Inc. The retraction has been agreed because the authors are not responding to requests to finalize their article for publication in the journal as the Version of Record.     

Beyond Bar and Line Graphs: Time for a New Data Presentation Paradigm

Figures in scientific publications are critically important because they often show the data supporting key findings. Our systematic review of research articles published in top physiology journals (n = 703) suggests that, as scientists, we urgently need to change our practices for presenting continuous data in small sample size studies. Papers rarely included scatterplots, box plots, and histograms that allow readers to critically evaluate continuous data. Most papers presented continuous data in bar and line graphs. This is problematic, as many different data distributions can lead to the same bar or line graph. The full data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. We recommend training investigators in data presentation, encouraging a more complete presentation of data, and changing journal editorial policies. Investigators can quickly make univariate scatterplots for small sample size studies using our Excel templates.     

MrEnt: an editor for publication‐quality phylogenetic tree illustrations

We developed MrEnt, a Windows‐based, user‐friendly software that allows the production of complex, high‐resolution, publication‐quality phylogenetic trees in few steps, directly from the analysis output. The program recognizes the standard Nexus tree format and the annotated tree files produced by BEAST and MrBayes. MrEnt combines in a single software a large suite of tree manipulation functions (e.g. handling of multiple trees, tree rotation, character mapping, node collapsing, compression of large clades, handling of time scale and error bars for chronograms) with drawing tools typical of standard graphic editors, including handling of graphic elements and images. The tree illustration can be printed or exported in several standard formats suitable for journal publication, PowerPoint presentation or Web publication.     

Correction: Early evolution of the biotin-dependent carboxylase family

ABSTRACT: After publication of our work (Lombard et al, BMC Evol Biol, 2011, 11:232), we noticed several major mistakes in the figure images provided for final publication: although the main text and the legends are correct, Figure 3 has been replaced by an image present in the Addition File 1 and Figures 4, 5 and 6 are displaced with regard to their correct numbers and legends. Please, accept our apologies and refer to the correct corresponding Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6 that we provide in this erratum. Legends are the same as in the original article.     

Retraction: miR-200a mediates protection of thymosin β4 in cardiac microvascular endothelial cells as a novel mechanism under hypoxia-reoxygenation injury

The above article, from Journal of Cellular Biochemistry, “miR-200a mediates protection of thymosin β4 in cardiac microvascular endothelial cells as a novel mechanism under hypoxia-reoxygenation injury” by Yang Li, Xiaolong Zhu, Xiping Liu, Aolin Du, and Bo Yu published online on 31 August 2017 in Wiley Online Library ( https://wileyonlinelibrary.com ), has been withdrawn by agreement between the journal Editor in Chief Gary S. Stein and John Wiley and Sons, Inc. The retraction has been agreed because the authors are not responding to requests to finalize their article for publication in the journal as the Version of Record.     

Augmented LPS responsiveness in type 1 diabetes‐derived osteoclasts

Bone abnormalities are frequent co‐morbidities of type 1 diabetes (T1D) and are principally mediated by osteoblasts and osteoclasts which in turn are regulated by immunologic mediators. While decreased skeletal health in T1D involves alterations in osteoblast maturation and function, the effect of altered immune function on osteoclasts in T1D‐associated bone and joint pathologies is less understood. Here T1D‐associated osteoclast‐specific differentiation and function in the presence and absence of inflammatory mediators was characterized utilizing bone marrow‐derived osteoclasts (BM‐OCs) isolated from non‐obese diabetic (NOD) mice, a model for spontaneous autoimmune diabetes with pathology similar to individuals with T1D. Differentiation and osteoclast‐mediated bone resorption were evaluated along with cathepsin K, MMP‐9, and immune soluble mediator expression. The effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a pro‐inflammatory cytokine cocktail, and NOD‐derived conditioned supernatants on BM‐OC function was also determined. Although NOD BM‐OCs cultures contained smaller osteoclasts, they resorbed more bone concomitant with increased cathepsin K, MMP‐9, and pro‐osteoclastogenic mediator expression. NOD BM‐OCs also displayed an inhibition of LPS‐induced deactivation that was not a result of soluble mediators produced by NOD BM‐OCs, although a pro‐inflammatory milieu did enhance NOD BM‐OCs bone resorption. Together these data indicate that osteoclasts from a T1D mouse model hyper‐respond to RANK‐L resulting in excessive bone degradation via enhanced cathepsin K and MMP‐9 secretion concomitant with an increased expression of pro‐osteoclastic soluble mediators. Our data also suggest that inhibition of LPS‐induced deactivation in NOD‐derived BM‐OC cultures is most likely due to NOD osteoclast responsiveness rather than LPS‐induced expression of soluble mediators. J. Cell. Physiol. 228: 349–361, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Retraction: The Escherichia coli ycbQRST operon encodes fimbriae with laminin-binding and epithelial cell adherence properties in Shiga-toxigenic E. coli O157:H7

Samadder, P., Xicohtencatl-Cortes, J., Saldaña, Z., Jordan, D., Tarr, P.I., Kaper, J.B., & Girón, J.A. The Escherichia coli ycbQRST operon encodes fimbriae with laminin-binding and epithelial cell adherence properties in Shiga-toxigenic E.coli O157:H7. Environmental Microbiology, 11, 1815–1826. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1462-2920.2009.01906.x The above article, published online 1 July 2009 on Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editor-in-Chief, Applied Microbiology International and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed due to concerns raised by a third party regarding the appearance of Figures 2 and 7. Figure 7D appears to be digitally manipulated while Figure 7F is a duplication of Figure 2, Lane 4. The raw data were not available upon request. As a result, the data and the conclusions are considered unreliable.     

Retraction

Senapati, N., Griffiths, S., Hawkesford, M., Shewry, P. R., & Semenov, M. A. (2019). Large increase in yield is predicted by wheat ideotypes for Europe under future climate. Global Change Biology, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14943 . [Epub ahead of print] The above article, first published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) on 4 December 2019, has been retracted by the journal Editor‐in‐Chief Steve Long, and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Since publication of the above article, it was discovered that a substantial proportion of the results presented to the journal as original had in fact already been published by two of the authors in another journal. The editors apologize for any inconvenience the publication of this work may have caused to readers.     

Erratum: Ochnaflavone inhibits TNF‐α‐induced human VSMC proliferation via regulation of cell cycle,ERK1/2, and MMP‐9. S.‐J. Suh,U.‐H. Jin,S.‐H. Kim,H.‐W. Chang,J.‐K. Son,S.H. Lee,K.‐H. Son,C.‐H. Kim

During the corresponding author's transfer from Dongguk University to Sungkyunkwan University in March 2006, data from the previous University was transferred to the corresponding author's new computer. During this data transfer there was a mixing of EMSA data from experiments involving Quercetin (QC), Ochnaflavone (OC), Tanshinone (TS), Crytotanshinone (CT), BMK, and natural extracts. The mixed EMSA data was inadvertently incorporated in more than one publication. Figure 6 has been corrected to new data with re‐confirmation. J. Cell. Biochem. 108: 337, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

6. Effect of OC on the TNF‐α‐induced DNA binding activities of MMP‐9, NF‐κB, and AP‐1 motif in HASMC. Cells were pretreated with indicated OC for 40 min in serum‐free medium, were incubated with TNF‐α (100 ng/ml) for 24 h. Nuclear extracts were analyzed by EMSA for the activated NF‐κB (A) and AP‐1 (B) using radiolabeled oligonucleotide probes, respectively. Indicated values are means of three triplicate experiments.     

Activation of command fibres to the stomatogastric ganglion by input from a gastric mill proprioceptor in the crab,Cancer pagurus †

In semi‐intact preparations of the crab Cancer pagurus the normal output from the stomatogastric ganglion (StG) was a regular pyloric cycle (Figure 4). Repeated stimulation of the posterior stomach nerve (psn) of the posterior gastric mill proprioceptor (PSR) often induced series of spontaneous gastric cycles. We were therefore able to describe the normal gastric cycle as recorded in the output nerves from StG and to identify most of the relevant motor neurones by reference to the muscles that they innervate (Figure 10). The gastric cycle output was variable (Figures 5, 6), although in many preparations one complex type of output predominated (Figure 7). The basic feature of the gastric cycle was an alternation of activity between the single cardio‐pyloric neurone (CP) and a complex variable burst in the lateral cardiac (LC), the gastro‐pyloric (GP), the gastric (GM), and other associated neurones. During this normally occurring complex gastric burst significant changes occurred in the pyloric cycle, notably an increase in activity of the pacemaker pyloric dilator (PD) group and an inhibition of the lateral pyloric (LP), inferior cardiac (IC) and ventricular dilator (VD) neurones (Figures 6, 7, 8, 9). These changes are probably associated with an opening of the cardio‐pyloric valve and food passage into the pyloric filter. The gastric output was related to the normally observed movements of the dorsal ossicles of the gastric mill and thus to the operation of the teeth of the mill (Figure 11). Increased input from the PSR is associated with the grinding action of the teeth which is caused by the complex gastric burst (Figure 12).

Stimulation of the psn during an ongoing regular pyloric output caused changes in the cycle which mimicked those occurring during the spontaneous gastric cycle (Figure 13; Table 1). Stimulation of the psn during ongoing gastric activity also affected the gastric units (Figure 14). The input pathway from the PSR is shown to be through the stomatogastric nerve (sgn), the connection between the commissural ganglia and the stomatogastric ganglion (Figure 15). The commissural ganglia are known to receive most of the sensory input from the foregut and PSR input is probably processed there. Recordings from the sgn show that psn stimulation activates a small number of centrally originating units, and that the activity of these units coincides with the pyloric output changes (Figures 15, 16). We therefore label the units command interneurones. Their effects could be mediated by direct connections to only the PD pacemaker neurones of the pyloric cycle. Control experiments showed that PSR input is not necessary for the pyloric output changes to occur during gastric output but that similar output changes can be evoked by input resulting from induced gastric movements (Figure 15(E)). We think that the pyloric cycle output changes are normally controlled by a number of mechanisms at different levels (Figure 17). We cannot easily explain the effects of PSR input on the gastric cycle neurones.

These findings are important because they allow us to study a specific input to the StG without disrupting its normal input‐output pathways to the central nervous system. Further experiments on the system designed to test the assumption that the sgn units are in fact responsible for the pyloric output changes, and to investigate the processing of the PSR input are outlined.     

Differential effects of lipopolysaccharide on energy metabolism in murine microglial N9 and cholinergic SN56 neuronal cells

There are significant differences between acetyl‐CoA and ATP levels, enzymes of acetyl‐CoA metabolism, and toll‐like receptor 4 contents in non‐activated microglial N9 and non‐differentiated cholinergic SN56 neuroblastoma cells. Exposition of N9 cells to lipopolysaccharide caused concentration‐dependent several‐fold increases of nitrogen oxide synthesis, accompanied by inhibition of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, aconitase, and α‐ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex activities, and by nearly proportional depletion of acetyl‐CoA, but by relatively smaller losses in ATP content and cell viability (about 5%). On the contrary, SN56 cells appeared to be insensitive to direct exposition to high concentration of lipopolysaccharide. However, exogenous nitric oxide resulted in marked inhibition pyruvate dehydrogenase and aconitase activities, depletion of acetyl‐CoA, along with respective loss of SN56 cells viability. These data indicate that these two common neurodegenerative signals may differentially affect energy‐acetyl‐CoA metabolism in microglial and cholinergic neuronal cell compartments in the brain. Moreover, microglial cells appeared to be more resistant than neuronal cells to acetyl‐CoA and ATP depletion evoked by these neurodegenerative conditions. Together, these data indicate that differential susceptibility of microglia and cholinergic neuronal cells to neurotoxic signals may result from differences in densities of toll‐like receptors and degree of disequilibrium between acetyl‐CoA provision in mitochondria and its utilization for energy production and acetylation reactions in each particular group of cells.

     

Heterogeneity of serum gelatinases MMP‐2 and MMP‐9 isoforms and charge variants

The matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) gelatinase A (MMP‐2) and gelatinase B (MMP‐9) are mediators of brain injury in multiple sclerosis (MS) and valuable biomarkers of disease activity. We applied bidimensional zymography (2‐DZ) as an extension of classic monodimensional zymography (1‐DZ) to analyse the complete pattern of isoforms and post‐translational modifications of both MMP‐9 and MMP‐2 present in the sera of MS patients. The enzymes were separated on the basis of their isoelectric points (pI) and apparent molecular weights (Mw) and identified both by comparison with standard enzyme preparations and by Western blot analysis. Two MMP‐2 isoforms, and at least three different isoforms and two different states of organization of MMP‐9 (the multimeric MMP‐9 and the N‐GAL‐MMP‐9 complex) were observed. In addition, 2‐DZ revealed for the first time that all MMP‐9 and MMP‐2 isoforms actually exist in the form of charge variants: four or five variants in the N‐GAL complex, more charge variants in the case of MMP‐9; and five to seven charge variants for MMP‐2. Charge variants were also observed in recombinant enzymes and, after concentration, also in sera from healthy individuals. Sialylation (MMP‐9) and phosphorylation (MMP‐2) contributed to molecular heterogeneity. The detection of charge variants of MMP‐9 and MMP‐2 in MS serum samples illustrates the power of 2‐DZ and demonstrates that in previous studies MMP mixtures, rather than single molecules, were analysed. These observations open perspectives for better diagnosis and prognosis of many diseases and need to be critically interpreted when applying other methods for MS and other diseases.