RETRACTED: PEDF prevents reactive oxygen species generation and retinal endothelial cell damage at high glucose levels

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy).This article has been retracted at the request of the Editors as it contains manipulated images.Panels in Figure 1A are noted as representative photomicrographs of endothelial cell cultured for 24, 48 or 72 hrs cultured without or with different concentrations of glucose. Panels in Figure 1B are noted as representing images from 9 endothelial cell preparations cultured in the presence of 33 mM glucose in the presence of increasing concentrations of PEDF. However, these panels do not represent independent culture images, but instead use digitally manipulation displays of the same images. In Fig 1A, the 24 hr no glucose panel, the 5 mM blucose panel and the 33 mM glucose panel use the same image, but with the x-axis, the y-axis or both x- and y-axes reversed. Fig 1A and Fig 1B contain the same image used to demonstrate cultures in 33mM glucose at 72 hrs in A, and 33mM glucose + 6nM PEDF in B, but the latter image is rotated 180° and shown at a higher magnification.As such this article represents a severe abuse of the scientific publishing system. The scientific community and the Editors take a very strong view on this matter, and apologies are offered to readers of the journal that this problem was not detected during the submission and review process.