Abstract
This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the Authors. Since learning of potential discrepancies between the raw data from the animal pulmonary physiology laboratory at Duke that were used to calculate the in vivo pulmonary mechanics and the re-exported machine-generated raw data, some studies published elsewhere have been replicated successfully. However it is not possible to replicate this study as the NQO1-deficient mice on the C57BL/6 background are no longer available from the NCI. The authors recognize that previous work to identify differences in alveolar size can vary dependent on background strain when comparing inbred mouse strains (Soutiere SE et al Resp Physiol Neurobiol 2004;140(3)183–91 doi: 10.1016/j.resp.2004.02.003). Because of the prolonged period of time required to successfully backcross NQO1-deficient animals onto C57BL/6J background and the time required to repeat studies presented in this manuscript the authors think it does not seem feasible to conduct replicate studies in a reasonable timeline. Therefore, the most appropriate course of action is to retract the report as it is the authors' goal to maintain accuracy of the scientific record to the best of their ability. The authors offer sincere apologies to the scientific community.