Strangely, the authors seem to indicate in an “IMPORTANT” note after these 2 STAP stem cell inducing steps that in fact it seems that their STAP stem cells (and presumably STAP cells?) are not actually arising from T lymphocytes:
“We have established multiple STAP stem cell lines from STAP cells derived from CD45+ haematopoietic cells. Of eight clones examined, none contained the rearranged TCR allele, suggesting the possibility of negative cell-type-dependent bias (including maturation of the cell of origin) for STAP cells to give rise to STAP stem cells in the conversion process. This may be relevant to the fact that STAP cell conversion was less efficient when non-neonatal cells were used as somatic cells of origin in the current protocol.”
Doesn’t this contradict Fig. 1i (see above) of the original Nature article that showed T cell receptor rearrangement? Also the authors even in this new protocol paper refer to the cells of origin as “lymphocytes”.
I’m not an immunologist and perhaps I’m missing something so I’d be curious if others with a deeper knowledge of T cells could weigh in here on the meaning of the author’s statement vs. the original paper.