Investigative Report on 'Bone morphogenetic protein-7 inhibits endothelial-mesenchymal transition in pulmonary artery endothelial cell under hypoxia' (DOI: 10.1002/jcp.26195)

Academic fraud report · Geng Detector

Summary

This report assesses the 2018 Journal of Cellular Physiology paper by Zhang, Liu, Yan et al. (DOI: 10.1002/jcp.26195) and assigns a verdict of 'highly suspicious.' The strongest evidence comes from the Materials and Methods section: the siRNA transfection protocol states '1.5 mg of siRNA and 7.5 ml of the X-treme Gene siRNA Transfection Reagent were separately diluted in 100 µl of serum-free Opti-MEM-1 medium,' which is implausible on multiple grounds (mg-level siRNA per well is toxic orders of magnitude above standard pmol/µg doses, and 7.5 ml reagent cannot be diluted into 100 µl buffer). A secondary textual irregularity is a stray period inside the BMP-7 reverse primer ('5′-ACCAG.GAGCAGAACCA-3′'). Image reuse, data fabrication, and statistical checks could not be performed from text alone; the timeline (received June 2017, accepted September 2017) is internally consistent. Confidence in the methodological critique is high; the overall research-integrity verdict remains provisional pending PDF image inspection and editorial response.

Verdict

🟠 Highly suspicious. The paper contains multiple implausible methodological descriptions in Materials and Methods that strongly suggest careless copy-pasting or fabrication of experimental procedures. Image- and statistics-based checks were not possible from text alone, so the conclusion is provisional.

Key findings

Implausible siRNA transfection protocol (Critical): The Methods section specifies '1.5 mg of siRNA' and '7.5 ml' of transfection reagent diluted in '100 µl' of Opti-MEM-1. Standard doses are in pmol or low-µg range; 7.5 ml of reagent cannot be diluted into 100 µl buffer.
Anomalous primer sequence notation (Moderate): The BMP-7 reverse primer is rendered as '5′-ACCAG.GAGCAGAACCA-3′,' containing a stray period not present in standard nucleotide strings.
Image forensics not performed: Western blots, immunofluorescence, and migration assays (Figures 1–7) could not be checked for duplication, splicing, or repeated loading controls due to lack of pixel-level access.
Statistical verification not performed: Numeric distributions, SD/SEM plausibility, and p-value consistency could not be evaluated because data appear only as graphed mean ± S.E.M. without raw tables.
Timeline check passed: Received 2017-06, accepted 2017-09; reagents and instruments (e.g., ABI 7500) are consistent with the era.

Evidence highlights

Direct quote, Materials and Methods §2.5 (Page 4079): '1.5 mg of siRNA and 7.5 ml of the X-treme Gene siRNA Transfection Reagent were separately diluted in 100 µl of serum-free Opti-MEM-1 medium.'
Direct quote, Materials and Methods §2.9 (Page 4079): BMP-7 reverse primer shown as '5′-ACCAG.GAGCAGAACCA-3′.'
DOI: 10.1002/jcp.26195

Notes

Confidence in the methodological critique is high; overall fraud determination requires image inspection and editorial/institutional investigation.
Recommended next steps: obtain the original PDF to examine Western blot backgrounds and loading-control reuse; request raw, uncropped blots and primer-synthesis order records from the corresponding author; flag the unit inconsistencies on PubPeer; notify the Journal of Cellular Physiology editorial office.
This report was AI-assisted and is limited to publicly verifiable textual evidence; false positives and false negatives are possible.