EXPRESSION OF CONCERN: Melatonin Compensates Silencing of Heat Shock Protein 70 and Suppresses Ultraviolet Radiation-Induced Inflammation in Human Skin Ex Vivo and Cultured Keratinocytes

Abstract

EXPRESSION OF CONCERN: K. Kleszczyński, S. Zwicker, S. Tukaj, M. Kasperkiewicz, D. Zillikens, R. Wolf, and T. W. Fischer, “Melatonin Compensates Silencing of Heat Shock Protein 70 and Suppresses Ultraviolet Radiation-Induced Inflammation in Human Skin Ex Vivo and Cultured Keratinocytes,” Journal of Pineal Research 58, no. 1 (2015): 117-126, https://doi.org/10.1111/jpi.12197.

This Expression of Concern is for the above article, published online on 25 November 2014 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), and has been issued by agreement between the journal Editor-in-Chief, Gianluca Tosini; and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. A third party reported that the 24 h 300 mJ/cm² panels for -Melatonin and +Melatonin in Figure 2A shared an overlapping section. The publisher confirmed these concerns, and following the initiation of its investigation, the publisher received further correspondence from University of Münster noting that the university had published a formal statement regarding one of the authors [1]. This statement reported the conclusions from a commission of inquiry which concluded that this author engaged in behavior consistent with scientific misconduct, and that the university had directed the authors to seek corrections with the publications involved in the inquiry. The University of Münster did not provide further details regarding the commission of inquiry with specific reference to this article.

The authors requested a correction for their article to replace the Hsp70 immunofluorescence 24 h 300 mJ/cm² +Melatonin image and they provided further corroborating evidence regarding their experimental procedures. Following a review of the data, the editors determined that, while the authors had provided evidence to support their claims that the replacement data corresponded to the stated samples and derived from the same experiments, the data provided could not be validated as being qualitatively the same. This Expression of Concern has been agreed to to inform and alert readers to the error in Figure 2A and the results of the publisher's and the university's investigation. All authors disagree with the Expression of Concern. On behalf of all authors, K. Kleszczyński requested correction for the error in Figure 2A. Author D. Zillikens had passed away before the start of the investigation.