Abstract
The following article has been retracted at the request of the Editor and Publisher
Wan R, Luan Y, Wu Z, et al. The target therapeutic effect of functionalized graphene oxide nanoparticles graphene oxide–polyethylene glycol–folic acid-1–pyrenemethylamine hydrochloride-mediated RNA interference of HIF-1α gene in human pancreatic cancer cells. Journal of Biomaterials Applications. 2019;34(2):155–177. DOI:10.1177/0885328219847019
Concerns were raised about the following figures in the article: A) In Figure 5, all the immunofluorescence panels appear to contain splices around some cells B) Figure 5A and Figure 6A appear to be duplicate immunofluorescence images with splices around some cells C) Figure 5B, Figure 5D and Figure 6B appear to be duplicate immunofluorescence images with splices around some cells D) Figure 7A1 GO–PEG–FA–PyNH2 Patu8988 group, Figure 7B1 GO–PEG–PyNH2 Patu8988 group and Figure 8A1 GO–PEG–FA–PyNH2 Patu8988 group immunofluorescence panels appear to contain duplicate features E) Figure 7A2 GO–PEG–FA–PyNH2 Patu8988 group, Figure 8A2 GO–PEG–FA–PyNH2 Patu8988 group, Figure 8C2 GO–PEG–FA–PyNH2 Panc-1 group and Figure 8D2 GO–PEG–FA–PyNH2 CFPAC-1 group appear to contain duplicate features F) Figure 8C1 GO–PEG–FA–PyNH2 Panc-1 group and Figure 8D1 GO–PEG–FA–PyNH2 CFPAC-1 appear to contain duplicate features G) Figure 8B2 GO–PEG–FA–PyNH2 SW1990 group and Figure 8C2 GO–PEG–FA–PyNH2 Panc-1 group appear to contain duplicate features H) Figure 9 immunofluorescence images appear to contain splices around some cells, with some repeating features between Figure 9A normal lung cells and Figure 9B normal ovarian cells I) Figure 13, Figure 14 and Figure 21 Western Blots appear to contain duplicate bands and features across both HIF-1a and B-actin blots
The authors provided images for all figures in question, however, these were not raw, unedited, originally captured images.
Due to the lack of raw images and unresolved concerns about image integrity that call into question the validity of the findings the Journal of Biomaterials Applications Editor retracts the article. Authors agreed with the retraction.