Abstract
Following the publication of this paper, it was drawn to the Editors' attention by a concerned reader that certain of the Transwell assay data in the article (featured in Figs. 3B and 7B) were strikingly similar to data appearing in different form in other articles by different authors at different research institutes that had already been published elsewhere at the time of the present article's submission. Furthermore, the scratch wound assay data in Fig. 7A of the above paper were strikingly similar to data published elsewhere. Owing to the fact that the contentious data in the above article had already appeared in different form in other articles prior to its submission to International Journal of Molecular Medicine, the Editor has decided that this paper should be retracted from the Journal. The authors did not reply to indicate whether or not they agreed with the retraction of the paper. The Editor apologizes to the readership for any inconvenience caused. [the original article was published in International Journal of Molecular Medicine 42: 779-788, 2018; DOI: 10.3892/ijmm.2018.3660].