Correction to “Synbiotic food consumption reduces levels of triacylglycerols and VLDL, but not cholesterol, LDL, or HDL in plasma from pregnant women”

Taghizadeh, M, Hashemi, T, Shakeri, H, Abedi, F, Sabihi, S-S, Alizadeh, S-A and Asemi, Z. Synbiotic food consumption reduces levels of triacylglycerols and VLDL, but not cholesterol, LDL, or HDL in plasma from pregnant women. Lipids. 2014;49:155–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-013-3867-2.

The journal is aware of a number of issues raised regarding the integrity of research published by Zatolleh Asemi and colleagues (Grey et al., 2020). An investigation into these concerns has been conducted by The National Committee for Ethics in Biomedical Research Iran, in coordination with Kashan University of Medical Sciences (KAUMS). The Editor has independently considered the concerns reported for this article and finds no robust evidence of questionable research practices at this time. The following corrections have therefore been made.

It is stated on page 156 of the published article that: “Pregnant women, primigravida, aged 18 to 35-years-old at 27 weeks of gestation were recruited in this study.” It is also stated on the same page that: “To obtain detailed information about the dietary intakes of study participants, all women were entered into a 2-week run-in period; during which all subjects had to refrain from taking synbiotic or any other probiotic food. At the end of the run-in period (27 weeks of gestation), subjects were randomly assigned to consume 18 g/day of synbiotic or control food for 9 weeks.” The first statement indicates that participants entered the study at 27 weeks gestation, while the second statement indicates that the participants had completed the run-in period at 27 weeks, and hence would have been enrolled into the study at an earlier gestational age. The Principal Investigator (Zatolleh Asemi) has explained that the first statement is the correct account of the study protocol. The authors apologize for any inconvenience these errors and oversights may have caused.