Abstract
Following the publication of this paper, it was drawn to the Editors' attention by a concerned reader that possible anomalies were associated with data shown in Fig. 4B, C and E, and western blotting data shown in Fig. 5, such that it was difficult to interpret the presented results as having originated from discrete experiments performed in two breast cancer cell lines (MCF‑7 and MDA‑MB‑231). After having investigated the matter internally, the Editor of International Journal of Molecular Medicine has decided that this paper should be retracted from the Journal on account of a lack of confidence in the presented data. The authors were asked for an explanation to account for these concerns, but the Editorial Office did not receive a satisfactory response. The Editor apologizes to the readership for any inconvenience caused. [the original article was published in International Journal of Molecular Medicine 34: 772-781, 2014; DOI: 10.3892/ijmm.2014.1822].