We wish to withdraw the results of the paper by Sudha Visvanathan, Carolyn L. Geczy, Jason A. Harmer, and H. Patrick McNeil, “Monocyte Tissue Factor Induction by Activation of β2-Glycoprotein-I-Specific T Lymphocytes Is Associated with Thrombosis and Fetal Loss in Patients with Antiphospholipid Antibodies,” The Journal of Immunology 2000;165:2258–2262. The first author of the original manuscript, Sudha Visvanathan, has declined to sign the correction letter.
In the above article, we reported that blood mononuclear cells from patients with the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) expressed high levels of tissue factor (TF) when stimulated with plasma-purified β2-glycoprotein-I (β2GPI) in vitro, whereas little or no TF was induced when blood from patients without the APS or healthy controls was tested. Subsequent experiments using recombinant β2GPI and a range of different preparations of purified β2GPI have shown much more variable and less consistent results than those we reported. After extensive testing, we feel that differences are unlikely to be due to contaminating endotoxin in some of the preparations. Although an explanation for the discrepancy remains unclear, we can no longer conclude that β2GPI is the cause of the observed TF induced on mononuclear cells from patients with APS, and for this reason, we wish to withdraw the results reported in this manuscript.
H. Patrick McNeil
Inflammation Research Unit
School of Medical Sciences
University of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia
Carolyn L. Geczy
Jason A. Harmer
Cytokine Research Unit
School of Medical Sciences
University of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia
