Novel APC-like properties of human NK cells directly regulate T cell activation

Original citation: J Clin Invest. 2004;114(11):1612–1623. doi:10.1172/JCI22787.

Citation for this retraction: J Clin Invest. 2015;125(4):1763. doi:10.1172/JCI81527.

A number of figure irregularities in this article were recently brought to the attention of the editorial board by the first author and corresponding author. In Figure 1, the ANK and UaNK sample labels were switched. In Figure 2C, the RT-PCR gel shown is identical to an RT-PCR gel shown in the original version of another publication (1). In Figure 3D, the panel showing DR0401-ospA incubated with ANK cells pulsed with HA protein (top left) is identical to the panel showing DR0401-HA pulsed with HA (bottom middle). Also in Figure 3D, the panel showing DR0401-HA incubated with UaNK cells pulsed with HA protein (top right) is identical to the panel showing DR0401-HA incubated with ANK cells pulsed with BSA protein (bottom left). In Figure 8, multiple flow cytometry panels shown were duplicated in the original version of another publication (2). The samples for these panels were labeled differently in the two publications, and in several cases, different antibodies were indicated.

The authors have stated that the errors were inadvertently introduced and further that recent experiments support their original findings. Moreover, they also note that their conclusions are supported by other work in the field (3, 4). However, the original data for this article are no longer available, and it is evident that a number of serious mistakes were made in the preparation of this article. Thus, the JCI editorial board is retracting this article due to the numerous errors in data reporting, misrepresentation of data, and image duplication.

The first author and corresponding author accept the editorial board’s decision, apologize to the scientific community for the mistakes, and will seek to publish a corrected manuscript version corroborating the findings of this work in due course.