Haruko Obokata struggled at times to maintain her composure during a news conference today in the western city of Osaka.
She insisted she did not tamper with the data to fabricate her results, and said she does not intend to retract a report that appeared in the scientific journal Nature.
Obokata apologised repeatedly for having used the wrong images and having altered an image in a report on using a simple lab procedure to grow tissue for treating illnesses such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease.