Two controversial papers were published in the well-established journal Nature, which blamed data tampering and manufacturing issues on the new method of transforming mature cells into stem cells. At present, the genetic data provided by the co-authors of the paper indicate that the cells obtained in this way are not what the research team claims. This claim is also supported by another source STAP cell created in this way, which is derived from pluripotency triggered by stimuli and may be just normal embryonic stem cells.
These two statements put tremendous pressure on the lead author of the paper and the biologists at the Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) of Haruko Obokata of the Institute of Physical Chemistry (RIKEN). I will. It is necessary to prove the existence of the STAP phenomenon.
After receiving many questions, Haruko Obokata and other co-authors agreed to withdraw two papers on STAP technology published in the journal Nature in January this year. However, the current question is whether there are really new STAP cells (made by placing somatic cells in a weakly acidic solution and applying stimulation) as claimed by Haruko Obokata.
The head of the mouse cloning field, Teruhiko Wakayama of Yamanashi University, became the head of the CDB laboratory, and Haruko Okata claimed to have created STAP cells in the laboratory. During the experiment, Wakayama selected a newborn rat from the laboratory and provided it to Haruko Hakata for research. Hakufang Haruko said that somatic cells were extracted from mice, exposed to acidic environment to prepare STAP cells, and then delivered to Wakayama. Wakayama City received the "so-called" STAP cells and created a self-replicating stem cell line. Wakayama also injected them into mouse embryos to produce "chimeric" mice, which are said to exhibit cellular pluripotency.
After a series of problems appeared on the paper, Wakayama began to question whether the battery he received was really made through the STAP method. The eight stem cell lines described in the paper were sent to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) in Chiba Prefecture, Japan for further analysis. IRS geneticists have embedded green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the mouse genome, which is used to mark the expression of specific genes. In the newborn mice that Wakayama gave to Haruko Obokata, the GFP gene is located on chromosome 18. In the generated STAP cells, the GFP gene is located on chromosome 15. This strongly indicates that the same mouse was not used in the experiment. Wakayama said: "In my laboratory, the GFP gene on chromosome 15 does not exist in mice or embryonic stem cells."