The Editor-in-chief has retracted this article [1] because it has been previously published by the same authors [2]. This article is therefore redundant. All authors agree with this retraction.

The online version of this article contains the full text of the retracted article as electronic supplementary material.

[1] Zhang LM, Zhang DX, Zhao XC, Sun W (2017) Erythropoietin rescues primary rat cortical neurons by altering the Nrf2:Bach1 ratio: roles of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2. Neurochem Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-017-2174-3 (First Online 12 January 2017).

[2] Zhang D-X, Zhang L-M, Zhao X-C, Sun W (2017) Neuroprotective effects of erythropoietin against sevoflurane-induced neuronal apoptosis in primary rat cortical neurons involving the EPOR-Erk1/2-Nrf2/Bach1 signal pathway. Biomed Pharmacother 87:332–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2016.12.115 (Available Online 5 January 2017).