Two months after Harvard and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital said they were requesting the retraction of more than 30 papers from a former cardiac stem cell lab there, two American Heart Association journals have retracted more than a dozen papers from the lab.
Yesterday, Circulation retracted three papers, and Circulation Research retracted 10. All 13 were among 15 subjected to expressions of concern last month.
For example, here is the retraction notice for “Human Cardiac Stem Cell Differentiation Is Regulated by a Mircrine Mechanism,” originally published in Circulation in 2011:
For the article “Human Cardiac Stem Cell Differentiation Is Regulated by a Mircrine Mechanism” (Circulation. 2011;123:1287–1296; DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA. 110.982918) by Toru Hosoda, Hanqiao Zheng, Mauricio Cabral-da-Silva, Fumihiro Sanada, Noriko Ide-Iwata, Barbara Ogórek, João Ferreira-Martins, Christian Arranto, Domenico D’Amario, Federica del Monte, Konrad Urbanek, David A. D’Alessandro, Robert E. Michler, Piero Anversa, Marcello Rota, Jan Kajstura, and Annarosa Leri, an investigation by Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) has determined that there were issues with some of the data reported in the article, specifically Figure 7B. An expression of concern was published on November 20, 2018,1 to alert readers that the American Heart Association was communicating with the authors and reviewing the materials provided by BWH. After considering input from authors, the American Heart Association has determined that the best interest of the public and the research community will be served by issuing this notice of retraction.
The American Heart Association, therefore, retracts the article.
Anversa is not a co-author on one of the retracted papers, but it is from his lab, and two of the papers subject to expressions of concern have yet to be retracted.
The retractions come more than four and a half years after questions were first raised about work in Anversa’s lab, a year and a half after the Brigham and Partners Healthcare paid $10 million to settle allegations of fraud in the lab’s data, and weeks after the NIH paused a clinical trial based on the work.
Anversa is now up to 14 retractions.
Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our growth, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, add us to your RSS reader, sign up for an email every time there’s a new post (look for the “follow” button at the lower right part of your screen), or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.
Please clarify whether these retractions are due to disbelief in the presence of cKit positive progenitors in the cardiac tissue or data manipulation
I think one goes hand in hand with the other…
How many of the retracted papers were published in Circulation (IF 18.8)? I do wonder how many other papers out there -from other labs, have passed through their obviously poor review process. Nepotism?
Diabetes. 2001 Oct;50(10):2363-75.
Hyperglycemia activates p53 and p53-regulated genes leading to myocyte cell death.
Fiordaliso F1, Leri A, Cesselli D, Limana F, Safai B, Nadal-Ginard B, Anversa P, Kajstura J.
Author information
1
Department of Medicine, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York 10595, USA.
Figure 10.
See: https://imgur.com/shv4zjB
Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 Alleviates High-Fat Diet–Induced Myocardial Contractile Dysfunction
Role of Insulin Signaling and Mitochondrial Function
Yingmei Zhang , Ming Yuan , Katherine M. Bradley , Feng Dong , Piero Anversa , and Jun Ren
Originally published23 Jan 2012 Hypertension. 2012;59:680–693.
pubmed: 22275536 doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.111.181867
https://pubpeer.com/publications/A1C00F675E313329DC7F11780B61A1#3
Figure 6E.
https://imgur.com/58G2MYY
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Mar 20;104(12):5217-22. Epub 2007 Mar 14.
Genetic deletion of p66(Shc) adaptor protein prevents hyperglycemia-induced endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress.
Camici GG1, Schiavoni M, Francia P, Bachschmid M, Martin-Padura I, Hersberger M, Tanner FC, Pelicci P, Volpe M, Anversa P, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F.
Author information
1
Cardiology and Cardiovascular Research, University Hospital, Zürich, Switzerland.
Figure 1. https://imgur.com/yPNlflV