This article has been retracted at the request of the author(s) from the journal Current Neurovascular Research. The authors informed the journal after publication that the animal experiments reported in the study were conducted without prior approval from the institutional Animal Ethics Committee, and that the required ethical approval documentation had not been obtained at the time of submission. In fact, at the time of submission, the author(s) declared that the required permission was obtained before proceeding for publication. The publisher cannot decide which statement of authors(s) is correct. The author(s) acknowledged that this omission occurred due to inexperience and an unintended oversight during the submission process. Following publication, concerns were raised by the authors' colleagues, the institutional ethics committee, and the relevant Science and Education department regarding the absence of formal ethical approval. In view of these concerns, the authors formally requested retraction of the article and expressed their apologies to the journal and its readership. As adherence to ethical standards for animal research is mandatory for publication, the Publisher has decided to retract the article in order to maintain the integrity of the scientific record. The publisher apologizes to the readers of the journal for any inconvenience this may have caused. The Bentham Editorial Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://benthamscience.com/editorial-policies-main.php. BENTHAM SCIENCE DISCLAIMER: It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. Furthermore, any data, illustration, structure, or table that has been published elsewhere must be reported, and copyright permission for reproduction must be obtained. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden, and by submitting the article for publication, the authors agree that the publishers have the legal right to take appropriate action against the authors if plagiarism or fabricated information is discovered. By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree that the copyright of their article is transferred to the publishers if and when the article is accepted for publication.
Qi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.