Stem Cell Researcher Calls for Retraction of Published Work

A Japanese researcher who co-authored what some are hailing as a "ground breaking" discovery for stem cell science, is asking that his work be retracted after heavy scrutiny from the scientific community has found several inconsistencies.

Teruhiko Wakayama from Japan's RIKEN Institute has expressed his doubts in the legitimacy of a study he helped publish in Nature last year with Haruko Obokata.

Obokata's study, which  was published in Nature last January, made waves in the scientific world when it revealed that a questionable method rumored to create the semblance of an embryonic stem cell from developed human cells could actually work with some success.

The study argued that a process, originally discovered by Dr. Charles Vicanti, that involved bathing a mature cells in a semi-acidic solution and then culturing it in a nutrient gel that is used to help embryonic stem cells multiply. The result, according to Obokata's study, is a stem cell that functions just like a coveted but controversial embryonic stem cell -- capable of creating cells for every organ of the human body.

If true, this procedure would revolutionize the stem cell research world, allowing researcher to produce and work with the equivalent of embryonic stem cells without having to destroy a human embryo in the process. Currently, to avoid any moral or legal complications associated with the destruction of embryos, current stem cell researchers work with adult stem cells -- safe to harvest but lacking the massive potential of their embryonic counterparts.

However, ever since Vicanti's discovery back in 2001, there had been massive doubt in the legitimacy of this process, called stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP). While the usefulness of STAP cells themselves has been called into question, the main problem most experts have with the discovery is the technique used. Currently two teams of researchers are attempting to reproduce Obokata's results with guidelines published by Obokata and Wakayama, but Wakayama has even admitted himself that he has only been able to reproduce adequate result with the help of Obokata.

Interestingly, Vicanti has announced that he too will be publishing a guide through the process, but it varies from the procedure already mapped out by the Japanese team.

These differences and lack of conclusive results are enough for researchers, including Wakayama, to have thier doubts.

Wakayama is now asking that Nature retract the original publication of the study so that it can be investigated and edited. No one has gone as far as to claim that this entire "groundbreaking" discovery is nothing but a hoax, but with uncertainty among even the co-authors of the original study, many scientists are beginning to suspect it is all too good to be true.

A detailed explanation and step-by-step instructions for the STAP process was recently released by Obokata and Wakayama.

The original release of the STAP technique results was published in Nature on January 29.

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