RETRACTED: Inhibition of LXRα-dependent steatosis and oxidative injury by liquiritigenin,a licorice flavonoid,as mediated with Nrf2 activation.

T his work (1) has been retracted because data claimed by authors to be erroneous were published. Antioxidants & Redox Signaling (ARS) was thankfully alerted about possible data duplication by a reader who is also an ARS author. Briefly, the reader alleged that Figure 1 of the current work (1) and Figures 4 and 5 of another work by the same group (2) contained duplicated data. The reader noticed at least one case where identical data was represented as originating from two independent and unrelated experiments. It was also alleged that some data in Figure 2 of the retracted work (1) are repeated in Table 1 of another publication by the same group (3). Upon discussion with the corresponding author, it was found that the published manuscript (1) did contain incorrect data. The corresponding author acknowledged that erroneous figures were submitted and requested a retraction of their publication (1). The author statement explaining the retraction is published below.

Chandan K. Sen, Ph.D.

Editor, ARS

Author Statement on Reason for Retraction

At the invitation of the Editor of ARS, I write to explain why this article was retracted. The work was experimentally done mostly by the first author Young Woo Kim who was the first author of two different papers reporting on the antisteatotic effects of liquiritigenin (1) and sauchinone (2). An e-mail from the Editor-in-Chief of ARS triggered by concerns raised by a reader helped me recognize some significant errors in scientific reporting. Young Woo Kim presented the same immunohistochemical figures that had been published in the above-said paper (2) into the ARS publication (1) that is currently being retracted. Upon examination of raw data, I observed that there was an error in artwork submission. In addition, Young Woo Kim used control body weight parameters (normal diet and high fat diet alone) published in the above-said paper (2) for the comparison of liquiritigenin effect in the paper that is being currently retracted. Because Young Woo Kim wanted to compare the effects of the two treatment compounds, he in fact did part of the work all at the same time using several animal groups and shared the diet controls. As a Ph.D. student at the time, the first author was not aware of strictness of scientific reporting. Because the artwork mistake and the lack of statement on sharing of controls significantly compromised the value of the report, I decided to retract the paper. As senior author, I take full responsibility for the errors on behalf of my co-authors.