Retraction to: Oncogene https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2015.223, published online 15 June 2015

The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article. After publication, concerns were raised regarding potential repetitive elements in the following figures:

  • Fig. 3B between the ZEB1-AS1 Huh7 and SMMC7721 images;

  • Fig. 4D within various images;

  • Fig. 4F between the SMMC7721 Control and ZEB1-AS1 images;

  • Fig. 5A within the ZEB1-AS1 image;

  • Fig. 5E within the Control image;

  • Fig. 6G between the siZEB1-AS1 Huh7 and SMMC7721 images.

The authors were unable to provide the original images used for the figures to address these concerns. Additionally, the study used the SMMC-7721 and L02 cell lines, which are known to be contaminated with HeLa. The Editor-in-Chief therefore no longer has confidence in the presented data.

T. Li, C. Shen, D. Cheng, Z. Wu, X. Deng, H. Chen, C. Peng, H. Li, Q. Zhan and Z. Zhu have not responded to any correspondence from the editor or publisher about this retraction notice. The Publisher has not been able to obtain a current email address for J Xie, Y Shi and B Shen.