Widespread Use of Misidentified Cell Line KB (HeLa): Incorrect Attribution and Its Impact Revealed through Mining the Scientific Literature
Published version of a preprint
Abstract
Continuous cell lines are widely used, but can result in invalid, irreproducible research data. Cell line misidentification is a common problem that can be detected by authentication testing; however, misidentified cell lines continue to be used in publications. Here we explore the impact of one misidentified cell line, KB (HeLa), on the scientific literature. We identified 574 articles between 2000 and 2014 that provided an incorrect attribution for KB, in accordance with its false identity as oral epidermoid carcinoma, but only 57 articles that provided a correct attribution for KB, as HeLa or cervical adenocarcinoma. Statistical analysis of 57 correct and 171 incorrect articles showed that the number of citations to these articles increased over time. Content analysis of 200 citing articles showed there was a tendency to describe the cell line in accordance with the description in the cited paper. Analysis of journal impact factor showed no significant difference between correct and incorrect groups. Articles using KB or citing that usage were most frequently published in the subject areas of pharmacology, pharmacy, oncology, and medicinal chemistry. These findings are important for science policy and support the need for journals to require authentication testing as a condition of publication. Cancer Res; 77(11); 2784-8. ©2017 AACR .
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Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Little attention is currently paid to the damage already done through the past distribution of research articles based on misidentified cells.
“However, little attention is currently paid to the damage that has already been done through the past distribution of research articles based on misidentified cells. Although systems such as retractions and corrections are available to alert other researchers of potential problems in publications, these systems are rarely used to flag problems with cell lines [20, 32].”
From The ghosts of HeLa: How cell line misidentification contaminates the scientific literature (2017) · cites this paper as [20]
The set of false positives contains articles using cells in the ICLAC register that are nonetheless reported with their correct origin (as reported for KB cells by Vaughan et al.).
“The set of false positives contains, among others, articles using cells in the ICLAC register that are nonetheless reported with their correct origin (as reported for KB cells by Vaughan et al. [20]).”
From The ghosts of HeLa: How cell line misidentification contaminates the scientific literature (2017) · cites this paper as [20]
Systems such as retractions and corrections are rarely used to flag problems with cell lines.
“Although systems such as retractions and corrections are available to alert other researchers of potential problems in publications, these systems are rarely used to flag problems with cell lines [20, 32].”
From The ghosts of HeLa: How cell line misidentification contaminates the scientific literature (2017) · cites this paper as [20]
Cites
Schweppe, R. E., Klopper, J. P., Korch, C., Pugazhenthi, U., Benezra, M., Knauf, J. A., Fagin, J. A., Marlow, L. A., Copland, J. A., Smallridge, R. C., et al. (2008) · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · doi:10.1210/jc.2008-1102 · Cited by 563 · see citing works
Self-citationCheck your cultures! A list of cross‐contaminated or misidentified cell lines
Capes‐Davis, A., Theodosopoulos, G., Atkin, I., Drexler, H. G., Kohara, A., MacLeod, R. A. F., Masters, J. R., Nakamura, Y., Reid, Y. A., Reddel, R. R., et al. (2010) · International Journal of Cancer · doi:10.1002/ijc.25242 · Cited by 520 · see citing works
Self-citationHuman cancer cell lines: fact and fantasy
Masters, J. R. W. (2000) · Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology · doi:10.1038/35043102 · Cited by 352 · see citing works
Cross-contamination of cells in culture
Nelson-Rees, W. A., Daniels, D. W., & Flandermeyer, R. R. (1981) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.6451928 · Cited by 329 · see citing works
A resource for cell line authentication, annotation and quality control
Yu, M., Selvaraj, S. K., Liang-Chu, M. M. Y., Aghajani, S., Busse, M., Yuan, J., Lee, G., Peale, F., Klijn, C., Bourgon, R., et al. (2015) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature14397 · Cited by 243 · see citing works
Kleensang, A., Vantangoli, M. M., Odwin-DaCosta, S., Andersen, M. E., Boekelheide, K., Bouhifd, M., Fornace, A. J., Li, H.-H., Livi, C. B., Madnick, S., et al. (2016) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/srep28994 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Sources of error in the retracted scientific literature
Casadevall, A., Steen, R. G., & Fang, F. C. (2014) · The FASEB Journal · doi:10.1096/fj.14-256735 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The ghosts of HeLa: How cell line misidentification contaminates the scientific literature
Horbach, S. P. J. M., & Halffman, W. (2017) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0186281 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Incidences of problematic cell lines are lower in papers that use RRIDs to identify cell lines
Babic, Z., Capes-Davis, A., Martone, M. E., Bairoch, A., Ozyurt, I. B., Gillespie, T. H., & Bandrowski, A. E. (2019) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.41676 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Self-citationKorch, C. T., & Capes-Davis, A. (2021) · SLAS Discovery · doi:10.1177/24725552211051963 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Self-citationGu, M., Yang, M., He, J., Xia, S., Zhang, Z., Wang, Y., Zheng, C., & Shen, C. (2022) · International Journal of Cancer · doi:10.1002/ijc.33789 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
- Authors
- Vaughan, L., Glänzel, W., Korch, C., & Capes-Davis, A.
- Affiliations
- Western University (CA)
- Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HU)
- University of Colorado Anschutz (US)
- 5CellBank Australia, Children's Medical Research Institute, The University of Sydney, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.
- Venue
- Cancer Research
- Published
- 2017-05-31
- Volume
- 77
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 2784-2788
- ISSN
- 0008-5472 (ISSN-L)
- 1538-7445
- OpenAlex
- W2609245071
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 6.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cancer Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Scholarship@Western (Western University) (submittedVersion)
- Lirias (KU Leuven) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Academic Publishing and Open Access
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Academic integrity and plagiarism
- Keywords
- cell line misidentification, KB cells, HeLa cells, scientific literature mining, research reproducibility, citation patterns, journal impact factor
- MeSH terms
- HeLa Cells, Humans, Biomedical Research, Cell Line, Tumor
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