Studying pancreatic risks caused by incretin-based therapies: is it a game? It's not a game!

A manuscript published recently on histological changes induced in the pancreas by incretin-based medications has been widely criticized because of ill-matched groups treated with incretin-based versus non-incretin-based medications and because of methodological problems identifying glucagon-producing cells. Now a study making use of the same tissue bank is available, and does not easily confirm the bulk of findings originally reported. This is an important opportunity to discuss the responsibility of authors to publish results potentially reproducible by other scientists as an important quality criterion, and the responsibility of reviewers and editors in handling such manuscripts. The main conclusion is that attempts to reproduce controversial findings are a necessity if finally the essence of novel results is at stake.