EXPRESSION OF CONCERN: Cannabinoid Receptors as Novel Targets for the Treatment of Melanoma

EXPRESSION OF CONCERN: C. Blázquez, A. Carracedo, L. Barrado, P. J. Real, J. L. Fernández-Luna, G. Velasco, M. Malumbres, and M. Guzmán, “Cannabinoid Receptors as Novel Targets for the Treatment of Melanoma,” The FASEB Journal. 20, no. 14 (2006): 2633-2635, https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.06-6638fje

This Expression of Concern is for the above article, published online on 25 October 2006 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), and has been published by agreement between the journal Editor-in-Chief, Loren E. Wold; the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology; and Wiley Periodicals LLC. This Expression of Concern has been published due to concerns raised by a third party regarding duplicated image sections and undeclared splicing within the subpanels of Figure 1A. The authors acknowledged the image compilation error, but due to the time elapsed since publication, the raw data was not available. The authors stated that their findings regarding melanoma cells expressing functional CB1 and CB2 receptors are supported by other experimental approaches shown in this article, and have been confirmed and published by other independent investigators. Therefore, the authors believe that the irregularities found in Figure 1A do not affect the results and the conclusions of this publication.

Nevertheless, without an explanation of the anomaly in the figure and in the absence of the original raw data, the journal team could not verify the authenticity of this figure. Therefore, the journal has decided to issue an Expression of Concern to inform and alert the readers.