A government-affiliated laboratory said Tuesday it is considering retracting a research paper on a trailblazing method to create stem cells that drew global attention after one of the co-authors said the paper should be withdrawn until certain aspects are confirmed.
Questions have been raised about images and wording used in the paper, which was written by a group led by Haruko Obokata at Riken’s Center for Developmental Biology on a method the group named “stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency,” or STAP.
Riken spokesman Satoru Kagaya said in Tokyo that the institute will report progress of an inquiry into the research paper Friday, and that it will take a while for the inquiry committee to compile its final report.
“Though it’s still in the middle of the inquiry, we’re looking into the matter eyeing the possible retraction of the paper published in the journal Nature in terms of credibility of the paper and research ethics,” Kagaya said.
He said that Obokata is continuing the STAP research at the lab in Kobe, but she has not issued a public comment about the controversy.
University of Yamanashi professor Teruhiko Wakayama, one of the co-authors of the paper, said Monday, “It’s better to retract it once and submit it again after making sure that data are all correct and it won’t be criticized by anyone.”
The paper was published in two installments by 14 people in the British scientific journal Nature in late January.
Charles Vacanti of Harvard Medical School, who was among the 14, has opposed Wakayama’s proposal for retracting the paper.
“Some mistakes were made, but they don’t affect the conclusions,” the tissue engineer was quoted Monday by The Wall Street Journal as saying in an interview published in its online edition. “Based on the information I have, I see no reason why these papers should be retracted.”
The STAP method is purported to reprogram cells by exposing them to stress, such as using an acid bath, to acquire versatile functions free of ethical issues linked with embryonic stem cells and without genetic intervention needed in the so-called iPS reprogramming procedure.
“We believe the crux of the paper remains unwavering, but we are taking the proposal seriously,” Riken said Monday of the co-author’s call for withdrawal.
The research paper will be retracted if consensus is reached by all the authors.
Wakayama said, “An important part that affects the basis of the paper is not accurate, and I don’t even know what STAP cells are when I look at photos (used in the paper) now.”
Wakayama said he got STAP cells from Obokata to use in experiments involving mice and wasn’t involved in creating the cells.
He said he called for a retraction to other co-authors after learning that the STAP cell paper may have used images from a doctoral thesis of Obokata.
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