The authors of the above article wish to retract their paper. Subsequently to its publication, in addition to certain irreconcilable differences in opinion shared among the authors, they have realized that, in their analysis of the role of peroxisome proliferator‑activated receptor γ in brain microvascular endothelial (bEnd.3) cells, certain of the results presented have been found to be incomplete and unrepeatable. Therefore, they wish to retract the paper in order to maintain the integrity of the scientific record. The authors regret any inconvenience that this retraction will caused to the Editor of the journal, and the readership. [the original article was published in Molecular Medicine Reports 16: 8882‑8890, 2017; DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2017.7750].