The editors of The Journal of Experimental Medicine have been notified by Dr. Linde Meyaard of the University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands, that she and the other authors of the above Brief Definitive Report wish to retract the paper.

The authors state:

"Recent studies by our laboratory have revealed that EpCAM is not a ligand for human LAIR-1 and LAIR-2. The prior experiments showing that LAIR-1–hIg and LAIR-2–hIg fusion proteins bind to EpCAM transfectants were an artifact resulting from contamination of the fusion proteins with an anti–human EpCAM monoclonal antibody, which was affinity purified using the same protein A columns."

The authors extend their apologies to the scientific community.