Japanese researcher Hisashi Moriguchi in a news conference admitted that he had lied about several circumstances regarding his involvement in a clinical trial making use of stem cells. Kyodo News earlier reported the world’s first clinical application that makes use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) in the U.S. which Moriguchi was supposedly involved in. But upon further research by the news agency, it was revealed that Moriguchi’s claims were untrue.
Moriguchi has claimed that on February 2012, he took part in a clinical trial performed on six patients, including a man with heart-failure, in the Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. The procedure is claimed to have harvested immature cells from the patient’s liver which were used to create iPS cells which can turn into any type of body well, in this case, heart cells which were injected into the man’s heart. However, the hospital has released a statement saying that they have no record of Moriguchi performing any such procedure or applying for approval for the procedure. In fact, they believe that the heart-failure patient that the researcher is citing might not exist at all. There was also no request to hold any such clinical trial, which must be reviewed and approved by the hospital’s board before being carried out.
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View the original article here: Stem cell researcher Moriguchi admits to lying about clinical trial – The Japan Daily Press
