Retracted: Hyaluronic Acid and Thrombin Upregulate MT1-MMP Through PI3K and Rac-1 Signaling and Prime the Homing-Related Responses of Cord Blood Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells

The Editor-in-Chief of Stem Cells and Development officially retracts the article entitled, “Hyaluronic Acid and Thrombin Upregulate MT1-MMP Through PI3K and Rac-1 Signaling and Prime the Homing-Related Responses of Cord Blood Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells,” by Neeta Shirvaikar, Leah A. Marquez-Curtis, Mariusz Z. Ratajczak, and Anna Janowska-Wieczorek (Stem Cells Dev 2011;20(1):19–30; doi: 10.1089/scd.2010.0118) due to suspected duplicated images in Figures 2 and 3C. 1 An independent examination utilizing image-checking software was employed which confirmed multiple suspected duplications within the images. Since the paper was published in 2011, the Editor experienced significant difficulties in locating and contacting the authors at their current institutions for an explanation. Contact was made in late December 2021 with the lead author, Dr. Neeta Shirvaikar, who responded with the following: “We carried out our investigation and tried to retrieve electronic (images and densitometric analyses) and physical (original gels and laboratory notebooks) records. Unfortunately due to storage space limitations and in accordance with institutional (University of Alberta and Canadian Blood Services) research record retention policies, all records are now discarded/destroyed. University of Alberta research record retention policies policy requires storage of records for five years, whereas Canadian Blood Services policy requires storage of records for seven years. The publication in question was published in January 2011 which was eleven years ago hence no records are now existent. Nevertheless, we have tried to explain the questions raised by you by closely looking at the very detailed data that was published.” Dr. Shirvaikar postulated the possible reasons for the identified problems, but the Editor-in-Chief of the journal did not find them to be plausible. Continued efforts made by the Editor to ascertain a more candid response were not fruitful so the determination was made to fully retract the article. Reference 1. Bik EM. PubPeer. https://pubpeer.com/publications/D44A03002998A1695F35969762F572?utm_source=Firefox&utm_medium=BrowserExtension&utm_campaign=Firefox