Summary
Nature Medicine has issued an Editorial Expression of Concern over figure data in a 2017 mouse study of thyroid hormone and lung fibrosis. The notice identifies concerns in three figures and says original data for one blot could not be located.
Nature Medicine issued an Editorial Expression of Concern on 14 October 2026 about figure data in a 2017 paper titled “Thyroid hormone inhibits lung fibrosis in mice by improving epithelial mitochondrial function.” The journal says concerns have been raised about similarities among images and protein blots in three figures, and advises readers to interpret the affected data with caution.
Which figures are affected
The notice identifies three issues. In Fig. 3n and the associated uncropped gel images in Supplementary Fig. S4c and d, the AECIIS PINK1 and MLE-12 PGC-1α blots appear highly similar. In Fig. 4a, the AECIIS BAX and MLE-12 BCL-xL blots appear highly similar, with one rotated. In Fig. 5e, images labelled Ppargc1a−/− Bleo and Bleo + T3 appear to overlap at different magnifications.
Blots are laboratory images used to report measurements of specific proteins. Similar-looking images across samples or conditions can therefore raise questions about whether the figure panels accurately represent the underlying experiments. The journal’s notice concerns these particular data; it does not report new experiments or revise the paper’s stated mouse-study conclusion.
What the notice says about the data
The authors were able to locate the correct blot for MLE-12 PGC-1α in Fig. 3n. They also replicated the Fig. 5e data using the original tissue sections. However, they could not locate the original data for Fig. 4a. Nature Medicine advises caution in interpreting the affected data.
Six named authors—Antonio C. Bianco, Guoying Yu, Joao Pedro Werneck de Castro, Jose D. Herazo-Maya, Naftali Kaminski and Rafael Arrojo e Drigo—agree with the expression of concern. Farida Ahangari does not agree. The journal says the other authors had not responded to its correspondence at the time of publication.
The notice qualifies the evidence behind parts of a study conducted in mice. It is not a new assessment of thyroid hormone as a treatment for people with lung fibrosis.