RETRACTED: Pioglitazone Attenuates Cardiac Fibrosis and Hypertrophy in a Rat Model of Diabetic Nephropathy

At the request of Sage and the Journal Editor, the following article has been retracted:

Elrashidy RA, Asker ME, Mohamed HE. Pioglitazone Attenuates Cardiac Fibrosis and Hypertrophy in a Rat Model of Diabetic Nephropathy. J Cardiovasc Pharmacol Ther. 2012;17(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/1074248411431581

Sage was made aware of concerns that this article may contain overlapping material with another article published at a similar time by the same author group ¹ . Specifically, the following data and figures appear to overlap:

Table 2 (MAP, mm Hg data values for N, D, DN groups) appears to contain overlapping material with Figure 1 (MAP, mm Hg data values for N, DN, DN groups) in a publication by the same authors ¹

Table 2 (MAP, mm Hg data values for DN + PIO group) appears to contain overlapping material with Figure 1 (MAP, mm Hg data values for Pio group) in a publication by the same authors ¹

Table 3 (Effect of Pioglitazone Administration, for 4 weeks, on Some Serum Parameters) appears to contain overlapping material with Table 2 (Effect of pioglitazone, aliskiren and their combination on some serum parameters) in a publication by the same authors ¹

Table 3 (Effect of Pioglitazone Administration, for 4 weeks, on Some Serum Parameters, for DN + Pio group) appears to contain overlapping material with Table 2 (Effect of pioglitazone, aliskiren and their combination on some serum parameters, for Pio group) in a publication by the same authors ¹

Figure 2 (Cardiac expression of TGF-β1 mRNA, MMP-2 mRNA, and TIMP-2 mRNA) gel bands appear highly similar to Figure 2 (Cardiac expression of transforming growth factor-beta1 mRNA, matrix metalloproteinase-2 mRNA and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 mRNA) in a publication by the same authors ¹

Figure 2 (Cardiac expression of TGF-β1 mRNA, MMP-2 mRNA, and TIMP-2 mRNA, DN + Pio group) gel bands appear highly similar to Figure 2 (Cardiac expression of transforming growth factor-beta1 mRNA, matrix metalloproteinase-2 mRNA and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 mRNA, Pio group) in a publication by the same authors ¹

Figure 3 (Extracellular matrix turnover marker in the different studied groups) appears to contain overlapping material with Figure 3 (Extracellular matrix (ECM) turnover marker in experimental rats) in a publication by the same authors ¹

Figure 4A (Photomicrographs of LV sections stained by Masson’s trichrome stain) appear highly similar to Figure 4A (photomicrographs of LV sections stained by Masson’s trichrome stain) in a publication by the same authors ¹

The authors responded to the concerns to explain that both publications were based on the same master's research project and simultaneously conducted with identical control groups. The authors state that they failed to disclose this overlap in control groups between the articles at the time of publication. The authors were unable to fulfil the request for raw, unedited images underlying the published figures.

Following review by the Journal Editor and due to the significance of overlapping material, this article has been retracted.

The authors did not respond to the decision to retract.