Retraction Note: DCs induce CD40-independent immunoglobulin class switching through BLyS and APRIL (original) (raw)

• Retraction Note
• Published: 09 February 2026
• Bernardetta Nardelli2,
• David M. Hilbert2,
• Bing He1,
• Andras Schaffer1,
• Paolo Casali1 &
• …
• Andrea Cerutti1

Nature Immunology volume 27, page 638 (2026) Cite this article

• 4988 Accesses
• 2 Citations
• 9 Altmetric
• Metrics details

Retraction to: Nature Immunology https://doi.org/10.1038/ni829. Published online 5 August 2002.

The Editor has retracted this article. After publication, concerns were raised regarding some image irregularities within the article and image similarities across publications from the same authors. Specifically:

• Fig. 4a, IH-CH transcripts, BlyS from this article and Fig. 6b, germline IH-Ch transcripts, IgD+CD38+ founder GC B cells in ref. 1 appear to partially overlap;
• Fig. 4a, VHDJH-CH transcripts, BlyS +IL-4 from this article and Fig. 6c, mature VHDJH-CH transcripts, IgD+CD38+ founder GC B cells in ref. 1 appear to partially overlap;
• Fig. 4a, IH-CH transcripts, APRIL from this article and Fig. 7b, control (top left) in ref. 1 appear to partially overlap;
• Fig. 6d, Igβ, lanes 3, 9 and 10 appear to present repetitive features within the image;
• Fig. 6d, Iα-1/2-Cμ from this article and Fig. 3b, Iε-Cμ in ref. 1 appear to partially overlap;
• Fig. 7c, β-actin, lane 1 from this article and Fig. 3a, lanes 1 and 12 in ref. 1 appear to be highly similar.

Due to the age of the article, the original data are no longer available. However, upon request, the authors could not provide a satisfactory response to the concerns raised. The Editor no longer has confidence in the results and conclusions of this article.

Paolo Casali and Andrea Cerutti agree with this Retraction.

Mikhail B. Litinskiy, Bernardetta Nardelli, David M. Hilbert, Bing He, Andras Schaffer could not be contacted by the Publisher about this Retraction.

References

1. Cerutti, A. et al. Ongoing in vivo immunoglobulin class switch DNA recombination in chronic lymphocytic leukemia B cells. J. Immunol. 169, 6594–6603 (2002).
   Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Division of Molecular Immunology, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA
   Mikhail B. Litinskiy, Bing He, Andras Schaffer, Paolo Casali & Andrea Cerutti
2. Human Genome Sciences, Rockville, MD, USA
   Bernardetta Nardelli & David M. Hilbert

Authors

1. Mikhail B. Litinskiy
2. Bernardetta Nardelli
3. David M. Hilbert
4. Bing He
5. Andras Schaffer
6. Paolo Casali
7. Andrea Cerutti

Corresponding author

Correspondence toAndrea Cerutti.

About this article

Cite this article

Litinskiy, M.B., Nardelli, B., Hilbert, D.M. et al. Retraction Note: DCs induce CD40-independent immunoglobulin class switching through BLyS and APRIL.Nat Immunol 27, 638 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-026-02446-1

Download citation

• Published: 09 February 2026
• Version of record: 09 February 2026
• Issue date: March 2026
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-026-02446-1