Immortal cell lines were a crucial discovery in biology and have brought onward medical fields in shipway we could only have dreamed of 70 years ago . For decades we have known that there ’s an military issue with them , they can contaminate and take over other samples , which might produce faulty result . Now researchers from Radboud University have estimated how many published composition have worked on mislabeled cubicle lines .
According to the cogitation , put out inPLOS One , almost 33,000 written document from 1955 to today are likely to feature enquiry on incorrect cell lines . The approximation suggests that these papers could have been cited in half a million other papers . Although this is just a modest percentage of the full identification number of papers in biology , it shows that cell line mislabeling is a serious issue .
" Most scientists do n’t intentionally bring out findings on the wrong cells , " lead author Serge Horbach , said in astatement . " It ’s an fair mistake . The more refer job is that the research data is potentially invalid and impossible to reproduce . What ’s even scary is that we ’ve roll in the hay about these wrongly identified cells for half a C , yet many researchers are n’t aware of this . New article are published every week about misidentified cells . "
pollution can happen due to carelessness and often just using multiple cubicle assembly line on the same lab workbench might result in issues . sealed cellphone line of work are unbelievably unyielding and they take over other cultures given half the chance . So far researchers have found more than 451 cell lines that were wholly taken over by other cells .
Another take is where the prison cell come from . electric cell distribution centers are often semi - privately owned and reverence that disclosing such large - scale trouble might hurt their reputation or finances . Although pollution is a problem , there are reasonable steps to solve it . Better protocols to avoid cross - contamination like hygienic smoke cupboard and genetical testing could make the problem go away . But all of these require time and money .
" The scientist I speak to said that was the biggest problem , " co - source Willem Halffman added . " And to solve that job , you either have to reduce the pressure to put out or take all researcher to take out a genetic test before working with the cells . "
" It ’s not our intention to damage anyone ’s reputation with this publication . It ’s about the overarching problem : what are we going to do about the mistake that have been made ? That ’s all we want to find out , ” the author express .
The most famous cadre line is the HeLa , distinguish after Henrietta Lacks who perish of cervical cancer in 1951 . The cells were get rid of from her genus Cancer without her noesis or consent . These cells made the development of a polio vaccinum possible , as well as manyother medical developments .
