Retraction notice to ‘Grape Powder Supplementation Prevents Oxidative Stress–Induced Anxiety-Like Behavior, Memory Impairment, and High Blood Pressure in Rats’ [J Nutr 143 (2013) 835–842]

Abstract

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/article-withdrawal).

This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief.

Questions have been raised regarding the reliability and accuracy of the results in Figures 5, 6 and 7 of the paper. Notably, there are concerns that the protein bands in the following panels appear to be either highly similar, if not identical, despite representing different conditions or parts of the brain or that they have been manipulated inappropriately:

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  Total ERK ½ panels in the amygdala and hippocampus in Figure 5;
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  GLO1 panels in the amygdala and hippocampus in Figure 6A
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  β-actin panels in the amygdala, hippocampus, and cortex in Figures 6A, 6B, and 7C;
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  GSR1 panels in the amygdala and hippocampus in Figure 6B;
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  BDNF panels in the amygdala and hippocampus in Figure 7C; and
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  Total CREB panels in the amygdala and cortex in Figure 7B.

The corresponding author, Dr. Samina Salim, was invited to respond to the raised concerns and encouraged to provide original files for supporting the published results. Dr. Salim has responded to JN by stating that the paper was part of a collaborative study with two other laboratories conducted more than 10 years ago. Both laboratories were shut down due to the death of one leader and the retirement of the other. In addition, Dr. Salim has changed her research directions, and her laboratory was relocated, resulting in misplaced or lost research record. Thus, she was unable to supply any of the requested original image files. Instead, she has indicated that similar protein expression profiles among the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex as shown in the figures were caused by their similar vulnerabilities and responses to oxidative stress induced by the pro-oxidant drug treatments and the multiple uses of the same blots for probing and re-probing different proteins.

However, the editorial board of JN (with the aid of image analysis software), solicited experts, and external professionals are not convinced that the explanations given by the corresponding author can address the above-described issues in Figures 5, 6, and 7 of the paper.

In light of the concerns affecting multiple figure panels that question the reliability of these data, The Journal of Nutrition's Editor retracts this article. Dr. Salim was informed accordingly of the decision and attempts were made to contact the active authors on the paper individually and via the University of Houston's Division of Research.

As a consequence of the above, the scientific trustworthiness of the original article cannot be established.