The editors wish to express concern about the article by Ellerby HM, Martin SJ, Ellerby LM, Naiem SS, Rabizadeh S, Salvesen GS, Casiano CA, Cashman NR, Green DR, and Bredesen DE, entitled “Establishment of a Cell-free System of Neuronal Apoptosis: Comparison of Premitochondrial, Mitochondrial, and Postmitochondrial Phases” published in The Journal of Neuroscience (1997) 17:6165–6178.
The image in the top right of the panel labeled “60 min” in Figure 2A, when rotated 90° counterclockwise, appears to be more similar than would be expected to that at the top right of the panel labeled “30 min” in Figure 6A.
The image showing CPP32-stained bands in the far right lane of Figure 5A (3000 g of extract, treated with mastoparan) appears to be more similar than would be expected to that in the far right lane of Figure 8 (16,000 g of extract, treated with cytochromec/dATP).
In Figure 6C, the fodrin-stained band in the far left lane (16,000 g of extract) appears to be more similar than would be expected to that in the left lane under Bcl-2 treatment (3000 g of extract).
In response to the editors' concerns, the corresponding author writes that the authors state “unequivocally that there was no misrepresentation of data, nor was there any scientific misconduct.”
