Retraction: Tetrahydrocurcumin induces mesenchymalepithelial transition and suppresses angiogenesis by targeting HIF1α and autophagy in human osteosarcoma

Yan Zhang¹, Ying Liu²,³, Jilong Zou¹, Lixin Yan²,³, Wei Du⁴, Yafeng Zhang³, Hanliang Sun³, Peng Lu⁵, Shuo Geng¹, Rui Gu²,³, Hongyue Zhang²,³, Zhenggang Bi¹

¹Department of Orthopaedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Nangang District, Harbin, P.R. China
²Department of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
³Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University-Daqing, Daqing, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
⁴School of Pharmacy, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
⁵Department of Orthopaedics, Baoquanling Central Hospital, Baoquanling, Heilongjiang, P.R. China

Published: May 20, 2026

This article has been retracted:This article has been retracted: Oncotarget has concluded its investigation of this paper, which identified the following issues:

- Figure 1D: Overlap between three wound healing assay images at the 0 timepoint.
- Figure 1E: Overlap between THC 12.5 uM and THC 25 uM panels in the U-2OS Migration row; overlap between THC 12.5 uM and THC 25 uM panels in the SaOS-2 Migration row; and overlap between the Control and THC 12.5 uM panels in the SaOS-2 Invasion row. Additionally, the Control panel in the Invasion row is duplicated from a concurrently published article by the same group [1].
- Figure 3A: The western blot for MG-63/HIF-1a is a duplicate of the Figure 4E MG-63/NF-kB/P65 blot; the U-2OS/HIF-1a blot is a duplicate of the Figure 4E U-2OS/NF-kB/P65 blot.
- Figure 3F: The last three bands of the western blot for U-2OS/Snail duplicate the first three bands of Figure 5D, U-2OS/VEGF.
- Figure 4A & 4D: The U-2OS/b-actin (Fig 4A) and MG-63/b-actin (Fig 4D) images are duplicates.
- Figure 4E: The western blots for MG-63/HSP-90 and U-2OS/HSP-90 are duplicates.

The authors did not respond to requests for comment or provide the original data. Consequently, the editorial decision has been made to retract this paper. While Oncotarget has reached out to all authors to notify them of this action, no response has been received.

REFERENCES

1. Liu Y, Zhang Y, Zou J, Yan L, Yu X, Lu P, Wu X, Li Q, Gu R, Zhu D. Andrographolide Induces Autophagic Cell Death and Inhibits Invasion and Metastasis of Human Osteosarcoma Cells in An Autophagy-Dependent Manner. Cell Physiol Biochem. 2017;44:1396-1410. https://doi.org/10.1159/000485536. [PubMed].

Oncotarget. 2017; 8:91134-91149.DOI: https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.19845.