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Introduction: Nephrotoxicity as a side effect caused by the immunosuppressive drug, cyclosporine-A (CsA), can be a major problem in transplant medicine. Oxidative stress may play an important role in the CsA-induced nephrotoxicity. It has been shown that the antihypertensive drug, valsartan (Val), has also renoprotective effects but, its molecular mechanism is largely unknown. In the present study, it was aimed to evaluate the Val effect in the alleviation of CsA nephrotoxicity via probable renal glutathione peroxidase (GPx) upregulation and oxidative stress decrease. Methods: Thirty-two Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups based on CsA and/or Val administration: group A (Control, 1 mL/kg/day of olive oil as vehicle), group B (CsA, 30 mg/kg/day), group C (CsA+Val, 30+30 mg/kg/day), and group D (Val, 30 mg/kg/day). After the administration period (six weeks), renal GPx expression was evaluated by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Plasma levels of GPx and 8-Hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyl groups (PCG) were measured by spectrophotometer. Plasma levels of urea and creatinine were measured by an autoanalyzer. Results: CsA treatment led to the decrease in renal expression and plasma levels of GPx in comparison to other study groups. Rats received CsA were detected to have significantly (p

This paper1 was simultaneously submitted by the authors to "Transplantation" journal under the title "The Effects of Valsartan on Renal Klotho Expression and Oxidative stress in Alleviation of Cyclosporine Nephrotoxicity" and was accepted for publication in that journal. On the basis of BioImpacts policy in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), any duplicate submission is considered as an ethical misconduct. The accepted manuscript in Transplantation shared considerable overlapping text and data (identical images and materials) with the published paper1 in BioImpacts. The Editor-in-Chief of BioImpacts, Prof. Y. Omidi, was alerted by the Editor-in-Chief of Transplantation, Prof. Jeremy R. Chapman, on such duplication. A comprehensive investigation through comparison of both papers was conducted by the editorial office of BioImpacts along with the Ethics Committee of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (TUOMS) under Prof. M. R. Rashidi, who also acts as Director-in-Charge of BioImpacts and TUOMS Vice Chancellor of Research and Technology Affairs. As a result, they decided to retract this paper in line with the COPE recommendations. The authors were informed and advised on this serious ethical breach. Therefore, the paper is retracted at the request of authors, the aforementioned committee and the Editor-in-Chief of BioImpacts, even though the corresponding author believed that two papers were different in their aims, studied animals, and factors. By the way, they apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. One of the conditions of submission of a paper to BioImpacts is that authors declare explicitly that "This manuscript has been exclusively submitted to this journal and is not under review or accepted for publication elsewhere". As such, this paper represents abuse of the scientific publishing system. As a peer-review multidisciplinary international "Publish Free" and "Access Free" journal, BioImpacts strongly adheres to the "Publication Ethics", and its foremost goal is to preserve the integrity of the scientific reports in the highest standards, therefore the journal takes all issues of publication misconduct seriously.