We don’t have much to go on here, for a retraction from the International Journal of Stem Cells.
Here’s what we do know: Dental researchers at several universities in Egypt, including Cairo University, Future University, and Misr University published a paper together. According to the article, they gave dogs oral ulcers and then injected the ulcers with either fat-derived stem cells, bone marrow stem cells, or saline. The researchers conclude that the fat stem cells, also known as adipose derived stem cells, helped the dogs heal.
Unfortunately, we have no idea what went wrong, because the retraction notice is useless. Here in its entirety is the notice for “Adipose Stem Cells as Alternatives for Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Oral Ulcer Healing”:
Int J Stem Cells 2012;5:104-114
This article has been retracted at the authors’ request.
The paper has been cited once, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.
We’ve written about the journal’s taciturn notices before. We’ve reached out to the journal, and to the authors, for more details, but have yet to hear back. We’ll let you know if we do.