Apigenin-Loaded Solid Lipid Nanoparticle Attenuates Diabetic Nephropathy Induced by Streptozotocin Nicotinamide Through Nrf2/HO-1/NF-kB Signalling Pathway [Retraction]

Li P, Bukhari SNA, Khan T, et al. Int J Nanomedicine. 2020;15:9115–9124.

The Editor and Publisher of International Journal of Nanomedicine wish to retract the published article. Concerns were raised regarding the alleged duplication of H&E images in Figure 4. Specifically,

• Figure 4A, Control, appears to have been duplicated with the same image for Figure 4E, Apigenin-SLNPs (50).

In addition, images from Figure 4 also appear to have been duplicated with similar images from Figure 7 in Arellano-Buendia et al (2014), Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity (https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/961326). Specifically,

• Images for Figure 4A, Control and Figure 4E, Apigenin-SLNPs (50) appear to have been duplicated with a similar image for Figure 7a and 7c from Arellano-Buendia et al (2014).
• The image for Figure 4C, Metformin, appears to have been duplicated with a similar image for Figure 7f from Arellano-Buendia et al (2014).
• The image for Figure 4D, Apigenin-SLNPs (25) appears to have been duplicated with a similar image for Figure 7d from Arellano-Buendia et al (2014).

The authors did respond to our queries but were unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the duplicated images and the Editor requested for the article to be retracted.

Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction.

The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.