Following the publication of this article, a concerned reader drew to the Editor's attention that, for the invasion and migration assay data shown in Fig. 4 on p. 2314, three pairs of data panels were overlapping, such that data which were intended to show the results from differently performed experiments were obtained from a smaller number of original sources. Moreover, after having conducted an internal investigation, the Editorial Office also observed that some of the flow cytometric data shown in Fig. 6 were duplicated in Fig. 7. Considering the number of overlapping data panels that have been identified in this published paper, the Editor of Molecular Medicine Reports has concluded that the article should be retracted from the publication on account of a lack of confidence in the integrity of the data. Upon contacting the authors about this matter, they accepted the decision to retract this paper. The Editor apologizes to the readership for any inconvenience caused, and thanks the interested reader for drawing this matter to our attention. [Molecular Medicine Reports 16: 2309-2317, 2017; DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2017.6829].
Keywords: miR‑23a‑5p; microRNA; oncogene; renal cell carcinoma.