The authors wish to retract the article cited above because it may contain fraudulent data, as evidenced by the findings of the institutional investigation performed at Kagoshima University and provided by its Investigation Committee to Blood. The Committee found the first author, Wataru Matsuyama, solely responsible for the fabricated data. The primary data are no longer available, and the first author is now deceased. None of the coauthors was involved in or aware of fraudulent data and none of them should be deemed responsible.
The seventh author of the original manuscript, Teizo Yoshimura, was not available to sign the letter of retraction.
Masuki Yamamoto, Ikkou Higashimoto, Ken-ichi Oonakahara, Masaki Watanabe, Kentarou Machida, Nobutaka Eiraku, Masaharu Kawabata, Mitsuhiro Osame, and Kimiyoshi Arimura
