Zhuang J, Chen S, Hu Y, Yang F, Huo Q, Xie N. Int J Nanomedicine. 2021;16:1691—1976.
At the authors request, The Editor and Publisher of International Journal of Nanomedicine wish to retract the published article. Concerns were raised following the authors request to remove images of lung metastatic nodules from Figure 7C. It was found images in Figure 7D appeared to have been duplicated with those from a similar article from the first author, Jialang Zhuang et al. Utilizing a high-throughput microdevice to study breast tumor cells clustering and metastasis, Analytica Chimica Acta 1151, 2021 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2021.338222). Specifically,
Figure 7D Saline, appears to have been duplicated with the same image in Figure 3F MDA-MB-231 Control, from Jialang Zhuang et al, 2021.
Figure 7D MSN@Dox+siTIE2, appears to have been duplicated with the same image in Figure 3F MDA-MB-231 SB273005, from Jialang Zhuang et al, 2021.
Figure 7D MSN-siTIE2/Apt@Dox, appears to have been duplicated with the same image in Figure 3F MCF-7, from Jialang Zhuang et al, 2021.
The authors responded to our queries and explained the images were mistakenly duplicated during figure preparation by the first author, who accepts responsibility for this error. The authors provided data for the study, but it was not satisfactory. Both the Editor and authors agreed to retract the article and the authors wish to apologize for this error.
We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.