Cao X, Tan T, Zhu D, et al. Int J Nanomedicine. 2020;15:1915—1928. https://doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S244849
We, the Editors and Publisher of the International Journal of Nanomedicine, have retracted the published article.
After publication, concerns have been raised by a third party in 2025 about the integrity of the data in Figure 3 of the article. Subsequently, the authors contacted the Journal requesting the retraction of their article due to concerns about the reliability and authenticity of the results reported in the article.
Further investigation conducted by the Journal and Publisher confirmed unexpected similarities present in the image panels representative of different treatment conditions in Figure 3A. Additional ethical concerns were identified regarding the animal studies conducted.
As verifying the validity of published work is core to the integrity of the scholarly record, we are therefore retracting the article. The corresponding author listed in this publication has been informed. The authors agree to the retraction.
We have been informed in our decision-making by our editorial policies and the COPE guidelines.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as ‘Retracted’.