Introduction: Skin aging is a normal process that might be accelerated or delayed by altering the balance between antioxidants and free radicals due to increase in the exposure to reactive oxygen species (ROS) into skin cells via UV radiation. Antioxidants can neutralize the harmful effects of ROS, and secondary plant metabolites might help protect against UV radiation. Methods: In this study, punicalagin was extracted from pomegranate, and concentrations of total polyphenolics and flavonoids were determined, and antioxidant activities were measured. Punicalagin was loaded onto niosomes, and its morphology and release were studied. An in vitro study was performed on human fibroblast cell line HFB4 cells with aging induced by H 2 O 2 and UV radiation. Cell cycle arrest was studied, and different genes (MMP3, Col1A1, Timp3, and TERT) involved in the skin aging process were selected to measure punicalagin's effect. Results: Punicalagin succeeded in reducing the growth arrest of HFB4 cells, activated production of the Col1A1 and Timp3 genes, maintained collagen level, and lowered MMP3. Punicalagin increased human TERT concentration in skin cells. Discussion: Punicalagin is promising as a natural antioxidant to protect human skin from aging.

The Editor and Publisher of Drug Design, Development and Therapy wish to retract the published article. Concerns were raised regarding the integrity of the HPLC chromatograms presented in Figure 1, where the values of the peaks did not appear to correspond with the values shown along the x-axis.The authors did respond to our queries and explained that their laboratory does not have access to an HPLC device and the HPLC experiments were performed by a third-party. They further explained that errors had been made during calculations of the retention times, but they were unable to explain how this occurred. In addition, discrepancies remained in the retention times of the corrected HPLC chromatograms the authors provided, and there was a lack of adequate data associated with these experiments.The Editor determined that the explanation for the calculation errors and availability of original data were both insufficient and had concerns over the reliability of the reported findings. The Editor requested for the article to be retracted and the authors were notified of this.We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions.open access to scientific and medical research