STAP cells are the result of an error, not a falsification
The miraculous method of obtaining stem cells turned out to be the result of an error
Asya Gorina, Vesti
The scandal with the revolutionary research of the Japanese woman Haruko Obokata (Haruko Obokata) has become perhaps the loudest scientific scandal in recent years. The scientist stated that stem cells can be obtained without complex genetic manipulations, but only by acting on ordinary mature cells with an acidic environment, physical pressure or heat.
The scientists called the resulting product STAP cells (cells with stimulated acquired pluripotency, that is, the ability to become any cell of the body).
Such a miraculous experiment caused a lot of excitement in the scientific community: scientists simply could not believe that such a thing was possible. As proof of the correctness of Obokata, a repeated experiment could be used, during which other scientific groups would have obtained a similar result. However, none of the world's leading researchers has managed to obtain stem cells from ordinary ones in such a simple way.
Subsequently, the study was recently finally recognized as a falsification.
In response to the scandal, one of the authors of an article about STAP cells even committed suicide.
However, the whole story was still shrouded in mystery, as Obokata continued to insist to the last that her experiment really led to the production of stem cells. Scientists could not understand what happened in the laboratory of the RIKEN Institute that led to a false discovery, scandal and even tragic consequences.
Seven research groups from four different countries took up the investigation. All of them tried to repeat the experiment in exact accordance with Obokata's recommendations. In total, scientists made 133 attempts, and all of them failed – no one managed to get STAP cells.
However, a team of biochemists from Harvard Medical School came to a certain understanding of what happened. As recommended by the authors of the original article, ordinary mature cells were programmed in such a way that when the gene responsible for pluripotency was expressed, the entire cell would begin to fluoresce, that is, glow. This glow would be an indicator of the transformation of an ordinary cell into a stem cell.
Later, the researchers actually saw fluorescence in the studied cells, but a deeper analysis showed that there was no direct transformation of an ordinary cell into a stem cell. The fact is, scientists explain, that the glow in this case is a consequence of a phenomenon called autofluorescence, in which cells emit light independently.
Six other groups that took part in the investigation also observed the glow of the cells, but did not register any signs of their transition to pluripotency.
Moreover, a personal investigation by employees of the RIKEN Institute showed that the cell culture with which Obokata worked was "contaminated" by third-party cells that were in the laboratory at the same time. The fact is that the description of the obtained STAP cells demonstrates their complete genetic identity with the embryonic cells, which at the same time were nearby in the laboratory.
It was due to this confusion with different cells that scientists were able to complete the test on mouse embryos: instead of non-existent STAP cells, the embryos were injected with ordinary embryonic stem cells, which gave the desired effect.
According to the final article published in the journal Nature (Alejandro De Los Angeles et al., Failure to replicate the STAP cell phenomenon), the theory with "contamination" explains the fact that STAP cells are able to form the placenta, unlike embryonic stem cells.
A group of scientists who led the investigation will present their results at the RIKEN Institute (photo by Kimimasa Mayama).
The latest analyses show that trophoblastic stem cells – the cells that form the placenta in a developing embryo – mixed with embryonic stem cells can actually produce a placenta.
In general, the scientists came to the conclusion that the whole scandal and falsification are rather not the result of deliberate deception, but the result of carelessness and inexperience of the lead author of the study. Such errors often occur in biological laboratories, but they must be taken into account in order to obtain pure scientific data.
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24.09.2015