An Expression of Concern (1) was previously published in the March 2019 issue of Cancer Prevention Research to alert readers to image duplication and manipulation within this article (2). The editors are publishing an update in the form of this additional notice following an investigation by the authors' institution.
First, as it relates to the image duplication in Figs. 2A and 6B, the institutional investigation confirmed the authors' statement that the controls in both panels were from the same experiment under the same experimental conditions, which accounts for the same image's use in each.
Second, as it relates to the potential flipping and reuse of Western blot images between Figs. 2E and 4B, the institution found that the c-Myc blot in Fig. 4B was from a different experiment, results of which were shown in Fig. 2E. This Western blot was also used in Fig. 4B of another article published earlier in Oncogene that was authored by the same group (3). The authors requested the opportunity to repeat the c-Myc Western blot experiments and submit the new data to the journal for correction; however, editorial policy dictates that the journal not consider data from experiments repeated after the article is published, as our editors are unable to verify the relationship of any new data to the published results.
On the basis of the institutional findings, the editors wish to alert the journal's readership that the conclusion that c-Myc is induced by mouse fat tissue filtrates may not be reliable.
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