Retraction Note: Down-regulated lncRNA DLX6-AS1 inhibits tumorigenesis through STAT3 signaling pathway by suppressing CADM1 promoter methylation in liver cancer stem cells

Retraction Note: J Exp Clin Cancer Res 38, 237 (2019)

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13046-019-1239-3

The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article. After publication, concerns were raised regarding the data presented in the article. Specifically:

• In Fig. 4j, the western blot bands representing two different cell lines appear highly similar.

• In Figs. 4n, 5c, 6b and 6c, the western blot backgrounds appear inconsistent.

• In Fig. 6d, the images representing Huh7-Blank and HepG2-NC groups appear to contain overlap.

Additionally, the L02 and SMMC-7721 cell lines used in Fig. 1c have been reported to be contaminated with HeLa cells. The authors have been unable to address the above concerns and have stated that these data were obtained from a third party. Furthermore, the authors have been unable to provide evidence of the Ethics Committee approval for the animal study.

The Editor-in-Chief therefore no longer has confidence in the data presented and the conclusions of the article.

Dong-Mei Wu, Zi-Hui Zheng, Shao-Hua Fan, Zi-Feng Zhang, Yong-Jian Wang, Yuan-Lin Zheng and Jun Lu have not explicitly stated whether they agree to this retraction notice. Ying-Bo Zhang has not responded to any correspondence from the editor or publisher about this retraction.