Summary
Nature Medicine has issued an Editorial Expression of Concern over northern blot images in a 2007 paper on microRNA-133 and cardiac hypertrophy. The journal says the original data are no longer available and advises readers to interpret the affected data with caution.
Nature Medicine has issued an Editorial Expression of Concern for the 2007 paper “MicroRNA-133 controls cardiac hypertrophy,” citing apparent similarities between bands in northern blot images. Published on 28 October 2026, the notice says the original data are no longer available because of the article’s age and advises readers to interpret the affected data with caution.
Images identified in the notice
The editors’ concern covers northern blot images in Fig. 1c and Supplementary Fig. S2c. Northern blotting is a laboratory method for detecting particular RNA molecules in samples; the notice focuses on the appearance of bands in the published figures.
In Fig. 1, the notice says ventricular lanes 1 and 2 appear highly similar in both the miR-133 and tRNA-Met blots. It also says the miR-133 band in atrial lane 1 appears highly similar to the miR-133 bands in ventricular lanes 1 and 2. In Supplementary Fig. S2c, the editors identify apparent similarities between ventricular lanes 1 and 2 in the miR-1 and tRNA-Met blots.
The notice is an editorial warning about figures in the earlier paper, not a new biological study. Its stated guidance is that readers should interpret the affected data with caution, given that the original data are no longer available.
Authors’ responses
The notice records that Alessandra Carè, Daniele Catalucci, Federica Felicetti, Désirée Bonci, Patrizia Segnalini, Leonardo Elia, Morten Høydal, Kirk L. Peterson, Carlo M. Croce and Gianluigi Condorelli do not agree with the Expression of Concern. It also says the publisher could not contact Segnalini, that Cesare Peschle is deceased, and that the other authors did not respond to correspondence from the editor or publisher about the notice.