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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : July 4, 2014 4:27 PM IST
The authors of a study that claimed to have come up with a new fast, easy, inexpensive and uncontroversial method of produce stem cells called for a retraction of their study in the month of March. According to CNN, in the study the scientists had taken a skin cell and coaxed it into acting like an embryo, producing embryonic-like stem cells that could theoretically be turned into any cell in the body.
What was described as a 'breakthrough' is how these cells were coaxed, by placing them in an acidic bath. But the researchers, who had announced the results in January 2014, have now stated in their retraction that their papers had 'several critical errors' in their study data. An investigation into the studies was started by the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Japan in February 2014, and the institution said its investigators had 'categorized some of the errors as misconduct.' (Read: Stem cell treatment a boon for burn victims)
In fact, the retraction was called for because one of the co-authors questioned some of the data that were used in the experiments, which led to the creation of so-called STAP cells (or stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency cells). In an editorial accompanying the retraction, it was written that the errors were found in the figures, parts of the methods descriptions were found to be plagiarized, and early attempts to replicate the work failed. The investigation found that data supposedly representing different cells and different embryos in the study were actually describing the same cells and the same embryos. The study was published in the journal Nature, which is now accompanied by the retraction of all co-authors. (Read: Stem cell therapy for various diseases all your queries answered)
What is stem cell therapy?
Stem cells are derived from human umbilical cord or bone marrow. Also called the 'basic cells' of our body they have the power to mature into any type of tissue cell in the body. Stem cell therapy is based on the principle that stem cells migrate to the site of the injury and transform themselves to form new tissue cells that can replace the damaged ones. They have the capacity to multiply and renew themselves almost indefinitely and can form mature nerve cells, muscle cells and blood cells. In this therapy they are taken out of the body, and kept under artificial conditions (also called as induction of the stem cells) where they mature into the type of cells that are required to heal a particular part of the body.
There are two types of treatments:
Autologous stem cell therapy: This method uses the patient's own stem cells (adult stem cells) which are obtained from the blood, bone marrow etc.
Allogenic stem cell therapy: This therapy uses donated stem cells. The disadvantage in this therapy is that in a number of cases these donor stem cells may be rejected. This method of stem cell therapy has not yet been legalised in India.
How is it done?
The entire procedure can be broken down into three steps: bone marrow collection, laboratory processing and stem cell implantation (bone marrow stem cell or cord derived stem cell). Your doctor may administer a 'stem cell stimulant' medication to enhance the transplantation process.
Disadvantages of Stem cell therapy
Stem cell therapy has not shown to have too many disadvantages, except that the patient is in some amount of discomfort after the extraction process. Taking a sample for the transplant involves taking marrow from the hips or thigh, this can be painful and the patient may experience nausea, headache and pain in the legs for a few days after the process. Read more about Stem cell therapy what you ought to know
With inputs from ANI
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