Retraction - Retraction miR-101 targeting ZFX suppresses tumor proliferation and metastasis - by regulating the MAPK/Erk and Smad pathways in gallbladder carcinoma

Sep 30, 2026

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Retraction notice for the Oncotarget paper titled “miR-101 targeting ZFX suppresses tumor proliferation and metastasis by regulating the MAPK/Erk and Smad pathways in gallbladder carcinoma.” Oncotarget concluded an investigation and determined the article contains multiple duplications and manipulations of images. Identified problems include duplicated panels across figures in invasion, migration, wound healing assays, and an issue where a Western blot panel labeled “B-catenin” was reversed and reused as “Vimentin.” The journal retracted the work due to substantial image duplication and lack of original supporting data despite corrected figures being provided.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

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Retraction Notice

Findings of Image Duplication and Manipulation

Editorial Decision and Author Contact

[www.oncotarget.com](www.oncotarget.com) Oncotarget, 2025, Vol. 16, pp: 859-859 Retraction Retraction: miR-101 targeting ZFX suppresses tumor proliferation and metastasis by regulating the MAPK/Erk and Smad pathways in gallbladder carcinoma Run-Fa Bao 1,2,*, Yi-Jun Shu 1,2,*, Yun-Ping Hu 1,2,*, Xu-An Wang 1,2, Fei Zhang 1,2, HaiBin Liang 1,2, Yuan-Yuan Ye 1,2, Huai-Feng Li 1,2, Shan-Shan Xiang 1,2, Hao Weng 1,2, Yang Cao 1,2, Xiang-Song Wu 1,2, Mao-Lan Li 1,2, Wen-guang Wu 1,2, Yi-Jian Zhang 1,2, Lin Jiang 1,2, Qian Dong 1 and Ying-Bin Liu 1,2 1 Department and laboratory of General Surgery, Xinhua Hospital, Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, No. 1665 Kongjiang Road, Shanghai 200092, China 2Institute of Biliary Tract Disease, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, No. 1665 Kongjiang Road, Shanghai 200092, China *These authors have contributed equally to this work Published: Deceember 31, 2025 Copyright: © 2025 Bao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4. 0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article has been retracted: Oncotarget has concluded its investigation of this paper. The investigation revealed multiple duplications and manipulations of images within the article. Specifically, we found the following issues: • Figure 3A, Invasion assay: panel “NOZ: miR-NC” was duplicated in Figure 5F, panel “NOZ: miR-NC+Vector.” • Figure 3A, Invasion assay: panel “GBC-SD: miR-NC” was duplicated in Figure 6C, panel “GBC-SD: TGF-b 48 h.” • Figure 3A, Invasion assay: panel “GBC-SD: miR-101” was duplicated in Figure 7A panel “GBC-SD: miR-101-TGF-b.” • Figure 5F, Migration assay: panel “NOZ: miR-NC+Vector” was duplicated in Figure 6C, panel “NOZ: TGF-b 48 h.” • Figure 5F, Invasion assay: panel “GBC-SD: miR-NC+Vector” was duplicated in Figure 6C, panel “GBC-SD: TGF-b 48 h.” • Figure 5G, Wound healing assay, panel “NOZ: 48 h: miR-NC+Vector” was duplicated in Figure 7B, panel “NOZ: -TGFb-miR-101 48 h.” • Figure 7C, Western blots: the panel labeled “B-catenin” has been horizontally reversed and used as the panel labeled“Vimentin.” While the authors provided corrected versions of Figures 3A, 5F, 5G, 6C and 7C, the unmodified images from the original experiments were not supplied for all figures to support these corrections. Due to the substantial number of duplications in the manuscript, and the absence of original supporting data, the Editorial decision has been made to retract this paper. We attempted to contact the authors regarding this decision but received no response. Original article: Oncotarget. 2016; 7:22339–22354. [https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.7970](https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.7970) [www.oncotarget.com](www.oncotarget.com) 859 Oncotarget

FAQs

What paper is being retracted?

The retracted work is “miR-101 targeting ZFX suppresses tumor proliferation and metastasis by regulating the MAPK/Erk and Smad pathways in gallbladder carcinoma” in Oncotarget.

What problems did the investigation identify?

The investigation found multiple duplications and manipulations of images, including repeated panels across different figures and an incorrect Western blot panel usage (B-catenin reused as Vimentin after horizontal reversal).

Why was the paper retracted even after corrected figures were supplied?

Although the authors provided corrected versions for some figures, the journal reported that unmodified original experimental images were not supplied for all figures, and the number of duplications was substantial, leading to retraction.

Sep 30, 2026

Uploaded by Terk