RETRACTED: Tolerance induced by anti-CD3 immunotoxin plus 15-deoxyspergualin associates with donor-specific indirect pathway unresponsiveness

This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief and Author. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/wps/locate/withdrawalpolicy. : The following letter was received from the authors of Cellular Immunology: come to the authors’ attention that a recently uncovered error compromises some of the data presented in this paper: CK, Dong SS, Lobashevsky A, Jenkins SM, Thomas JM. Tolerance induced by anti-CD3 immunotoxin plus 15-deoxyspergualin associates with donor-specific indirect pathway unresponsiveness. Cell. Immunol. 2003 Jun;223(2):103–12. e learned that assessment of kidney allograft function included several animals that possessed an intrinsic kidney and had not undergone bilateral nephrectomies as reported. Consequently, the authors believe that data and conclusions relating to the duration of operational tolerance were overestimated and invalid. Although the validity of the in vitro studies is not in doubt, some clarification is necessary. Of the four ‘tolerant’ recipients examined multiple times for anti-donor indirect pathway responses, one (98R317) underwent bilateral nephrectomy and remains tolerant. We have determined that indirect MLR studies were performed in 96C044 before the transplanted kidney failed. In view of the finding that anti-donor indirect pathway hyporesponsiveness was demonstrated in two other recipients after graft failure, the relevance of the findings to stable tolerance is in doubt. In the interest of scientific accuracy and ethical standard, we retract the article cited above. ress regret to all in the scientific community whose work on tolerance might have been impacted by this unfortunate error. ief-Editor has carefully reviewed this letter and the article and concurs with their decision that some of the conclusions drawn in this study are not valid and that the paper should be retracted.