What Caught Our Attention: Thousands of papers have relied on contaminated or wrong cell lines, a problem journals have not been particularly proactive in addressing. So far, only a few studies have been retracted for using misidentified cell lines.
But that hasn’t stopped scientists from trying to clean up the record. In 2014, Amanda Capes-Davis, chair of the International Cell Line Authentication Committee, posted a comment on Pubmed Commons about a recently published paper, noting that the cell line was not the cancer cell type the authors claimed. She also included a link to the registry of misidentified cell lines, which showed the line — known as KB — was a cervical cancer cell type, not oral cancer (as the authors believed). But it wasn’t until November 2017 that the journal took some action — in this case retracting the article, and referring to the (yes, three year old) Pubmed comment as cause.
Journal: BioMed Research International
Authors: Pao-Yu Tseng, Wei-Cheng Lu, Ming-Ju Hsieh, Su-Yu Chien, and Mu-Kuan Chen
Affiliations: Changhua Christian Hospital,Taiwan; Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan;
China Medical University, Taiwan
BioMed Research International has retracted the article titled “Tanshinone IIA Induces Apoptosis in Human Oral Cancer KB Cells through a Mitochondria-Dependent Pathway” [1]. As noted by Amanda Capes-Davis on PubMed Commons, KB cells are cross-contaminated by HeLa and are not oral cancer cells [2]. Therefore, the conclusions cannot be supported. Tan IIA was already known to induce apoptosis in HeLa cells through a mitochondria-dependent pathway [3].
Date of Article: May 2014
Times Cited, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science: 5
Date of Notice: November 21, 2017
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Research papers especially on clinical research results must be clarified with specialized authorities before publications to avoid dangerous controversies.
Many thanks to Retraction Watch for finding out this paper was retracted. I was not aware that my comment led to further action until seeing it highlighted here. Good to see the editors taking action on concerns regarding misidentified cell lines.