RETRACTED ARTICLE: Chemokine receptor 7 overexpression promotes mesenchymal stem cell migration and proliferation via secreting Chemokine ligand 12
Authors: Lan Yang
Hai-Bo Qiu
Qin Sun
Shuling Hu
Yingzi Huang
Songqiao Liu
Airan Liu
Ling Liu
Fengmei Guo
Yi Yang
Jian-Xiao Chen
Xi-Wen Zhang
Journal: Scientific Reports (2018)
Discipline: Multidisciplinary
Keywords: mesenchymal stem cells; therapy; proliferation; migration; chemokine receptors
Affiliations: Department of Critical Care Medicine, Nanjing Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210009, China., Department of Critical Care Medicine, Nanjing Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210009, China. .

Abstract:  Great interest has been shown in mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy in a wide variety of clinical domains. However, the therapeutic efficiency depends on the proliferation and migration of MSCs. Chemokine receptors are involved in regulating the proliferation and migration to the specific organs of MSCs in different microenvironments. CXC receptor seven (CXCR7), a newly discovered Chemokine ligand 12 (CXCL12) receptor, has organ specificity for tumour migration. We hypothesized that CXCR7 expression affects proliferation and migration of MSCs. In present study, we constructed long-term and stable mMSCs lines overexpressing and suppressing CXCR7 modifications with lentiviral vectors. The transduction efficiencies, mRNA and protein expression of CXCR7 were significantly regulated. CXCR7 gene overexpression promoted mMSCs proliferation and migration, whereas suppressing CXCR7 had the opposite effect. Additional CXCL12 improved the vertical migration of mMSCs. The overexpression of CXCR7 increased the MSC-secreted CXCL12, VCAM-1, CD44 and MMP2 levels, which contributed to the improvement of mMSC proliferation and migration. Therefore, overexpressing CXCR7 improved the proliferation and migration of mMSCs, which may be attributable to the CXCL12 secreted by MSCs, leading to a positive feedback loop for CXCL12/CXCR7 axis. Our results may provide a potential method for improving the treatment effectiveness of mMSCs by overexpressing CXCR7. 

Retracted: Yes

PubPeer comments:
 Retraction, March 15 2022: https: www.nature.com articles s41598-022-08386-8.pdf The Editors have retracted this Article. After publication, concerns were raised with the data presented in the Figures, specifically: * In Figure 1a, flow cytometry graphs for MSC-OENC-CXCR7 and MSC-ShNC-CXCR7 appear to be identical, but have different % values. * In Figure 4a, the two MSC-BLANK images are duplicated in the two experiments. * In Figure 4b, the two MSC-BLANK images are also duplicated with different brightness levels. The Authors did not provide the original data upon the Editorsu2019 request. The Editors therefore no longer have confidence in the presented data. , 
 *  In Figure 1a, flow cytometry graphs for MSC-OENC-CXCR7 and MSC-ShNC-CXCR7 appear to be identical, but have different % values. Shown with red boxes: ![file] *  In Figure 4a, the two MSC-BLANK images are duplicated in the two experiments. Shown with blue boxes. This duplication actually seems appropriate. *  In Figure 4b, the two MSC-BLANK images are also duplicated with different brightness levels. Shown with green boxes. This duplication actually seems appropriate. * An additional finding not mentioned in the retraction is one between MSC-OE-CXCR7+CXCL12 at 12h and at 18h, shown with yellow boxes. ![file] ,