Retraction: Tobacco-specific Carcinogens Induce Hypermethylation, DNA Adducts, and DNA Damage in Bladder Cancer

This article (1) has been retracted at the request of the editors. Readers alerted the journal to potential image issues in Figs. 2C (bottom, CHK2) and 3E. Journal editors referred the figure issues to the Baylor College of Medicine's Committee on Scientific Integrity. After an institutional investigation, it was determined that fabrication and/or falsification had occurred in the published Figs. 2C (bottom, CHK2) and 3E. The authors provided data from replicate experiments for Figs. 2C and 3E to support their conclusions, but the journal could not verify these data.

A copy of this Retraction Notice was sent to the last known email addresses for the 33 authors. Twenty-four authors (Feng Jin, Jose Thaiparambil, Sri Ramya Donepudi, Venkatrao Vantaku, Danthasinghe Waduge Badrajee Piyarathna, Suman Maity, Vasanta Putluri, Franklin Gu, Preeti Purwaha, Salil Kumar Bhowmik, Chandrashekar R. Ambati, Kimal Rajapakshe, Daniel Gödde, George Michailidis, Benny Abraham Kaipparettu, Balasubramanyam Karanam, Martha K. Terris, Shyam M. Kavuri, Seth P. Lerner, Farrah Kheradmand, Cristian Coarfa, Arun Sreekumar, Yair Lotan, Nagireddy Putluri) did not agree to the retraction, and several of these authors subsequently attested that the provided replicate data is valid. Nine authors (Rashmi Krishnapuram, Friedrich-Carl von Rundstedt, Florian Roghmann, Sebastian Berg, Joachim Noldus, Stephan Roth, Stephan Störkel, Stephan Degener, Randa El-Zein) did not respond.