More than 30,000 scientific studies are based on erroneous cells

One study has identified numerous investigations that use poorly classified cells due to errors that have been perpetuated and increased over the years.

Liver cells considered as lung or mouse cells used as human. These are some of the cases that, according to a recent analysis, have led to erroneous biomedical investigations that count for tens of thousands.

The study, published in PLOS ONE, reveals that more than 30,000 scientific papers could harbor errors or draw the wrong conclusions due to the use of poorly identified cell cultures. These are part of libraries of cellular strains that have been contaminated and to which erroneously classified lines have been added over the years, affecting numerous laboratory investigations.

"Most scientists do not intentionally publish the findings based on the wrong cells," warns one researcher, researcher Serge Horbach of the University of Radboud in the Netherlands. Along with his colleagues, he has tracked the academic articles present in the 'Web of Science' database for jobs using any of the 451 poorly classified cell lines collected in an international registry.

According to their results, there are about 33,000 publications affected by these errors that could be reflected in the scientific literature since the 1950s. One of the most widespread sources of contamination is HeLa cells, a type of cell culture widely used in research.

Fear of loss of reputation or pressure to publish their studies are some of the reasons why some scientists, knowing the potential problem, do not have enough money or time to check the cell cultures they use. The authors caution that research published with contaminated cell lines should indicate potential errors and advise that future work should analyze its nature.