WITHDRAWAL NOTICE - June 2026
Record: Functional States of T Cells in Scleroderma Peripheral Blood Reveal
Distinct Cytokine Polarization Axes
Version DOI of original: 10.5281/zenodo.18644702
Concept DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18644701

The author withdraws the central claim of this manuscript: that scleroderma
peripheral-blood T cells occupy distinct, identifiable cytokine-polarization
functional states. On reanalysis the claim did not survive correction of the
following issues:

1. Pseudoreplication. Functional states were called at the cluster level and
   treated as independent observations rather than aggregated per patient. The
   corrected per-patient analysis did not support the claimed distinctions.
2. Cluster-level labeling without an external anchor. State labels were assigned
   to Leiden clusters and then used to interpret those same clusters.
3. Sample-structure handling. Donor/sample structure across the PBMC set was not
   adequately accounted for, inflating apparent separation between states.

What remains usable: the processing approach and code are left available for
transparency. The biological and therapeutic conclusions should be treated as
withdrawn. This preprint was not accepted for publication; this notice is added
so the public record reflects the limitations accurately.

This manuscript is a standalone research paper. It is not a companion to, and
does not affect the validity or priority date of, any patent filing.
