"HeLa cells are one of the most important things that happened to medicine in the last hundred years" -Donald Defler
From the moment they were taken, Henrietta's cells were destined to be used for great things. Hela cells are used in every type of medicine stronger than aspirin. Parts of her genome have been around the world and even up in space. She died never knowing how incredible her cells were and how much of an impact the would have on the world today. HeLa cells were used by researches around the world. However, 20 years after Henrietta Lacks's death, mounting evidence suggested that HeLa cells contaminated and overgrew cell lines. "Cultures, supposedly of tissue such as breast cancer or mouse, proved to be HeLa cells"(Archives). "Scientists don't like to think of HeLa cells as being little bits of Henrietta because it's much easier to do science when you dissociate your materials from the people they come from"- Robert Stevenson
Henrietta Lacks' cells were sent around the world, widespread use of her cells made it impossible for people not to know what HeLa cells were. Henrietta will forever leave a legacy in the scientific world not only with her cells but the way that they were taken. Almost all of the patients in hospitals in the 1950's never signed a consent form. Many black patients had no idea what was being done to their bodies. HeLa cells were sold to over thousands of scientists yet the money that was made from them, not a single dime went back to her or her family. They were living a terrible life of poverty, not knowing the wonderful creation their mother's death had led to. Today, the NIH (National Institute of Health) has made it so that nothing can be done or taken from your body unless there is written consent.
Short Term Effects
1952 Polio- Researchers discover that HeLa is susceptible to Polio, paving the way for its use in the largest vaccine field trial to date.
1952 Live Cell Transport- Scientists working with HeLa cells come up with a way to send cells through the mail with out killing them.
1954 Cancer Injection- Virologist, Chester Southam, started to wonder if this miracle cell they were working with could possible be dangerous. Could it effect people and give them cancer? He and many other scientists believe that cancer was caused by either a virus or an immune system deficiency, so they use HeLa cells to test that theory. They gathered a handful of patients with cancer and injected them with a syringe full of saline solution mixed with HeLa. Within hours the injection sight grew red and swollen. Five to ten days later, hard nodules began to grow. Southam eventually cut them all off but with a few patients the nodules came back and in one patient, moved to her lymph nodes. Since those patients had cancer to begin with, Southam wanted to try patients who were healthy so he used prisoners from the Ohio prison. He gave multiple injections to each prisoner and unlike the ill patients, those men fought off the cancer. With each injection they are able to fight the injection faster.
1973 Salmonella- Scientists use HeLa to model the invasiveness of salmonella, gauge its effectiveness, and study its behavior inside a human cell.
(Immortal)
1952 Live Cell Transport- Scientists working with HeLa cells come up with a way to send cells through the mail with out killing them.
1954 Cancer Injection- Virologist, Chester Southam, started to wonder if this miracle cell they were working with could possible be dangerous. Could it effect people and give them cancer? He and many other scientists believe that cancer was caused by either a virus or an immune system deficiency, so they use HeLa cells to test that theory. They gathered a handful of patients with cancer and injected them with a syringe full of saline solution mixed with HeLa. Within hours the injection sight grew red and swollen. Five to ten days later, hard nodules began to grow. Southam eventually cut them all off but with a few patients the nodules came back and in one patient, moved to her lymph nodes. Since those patients had cancer to begin with, Southam wanted to try patients who were healthy so he used prisoners from the Ohio prison. He gave multiple injections to each prisoner and unlike the ill patients, those men fought off the cancer. With each injection they are able to fight the injection faster.
1973 Salmonella- Scientists use HeLa to model the invasiveness of salmonella, gauge its effectiveness, and study its behavior inside a human cell.
(Immortal)
Long Term Effects
Major Discoveries Using HeLa Cells:
In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF)- In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a complex series of procedures used to treat fertility or genetic problems and assist with the conception of a child. During IVF, mature eggs are collected (retrieved) from the ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. Then the fertilized egg (embryo) or eggs are implanted in the uterus. One cycle of IVF takes about two weeks. Some of Lack's tissue samples behaved differently than others. Scientists learned to isolate one specific cell, multiply it, and start a cell line. Isolating one cell and keeping it alive is the basic technique for cloning and in-vitro fertilization.
Stem Cell Isolation- a stem cells is an undifferentiated cell of a multicellular organism (a cell that hasn't been given a specific function) that is capable of of giving rise to indefinitely more cells of the same type, from which certain other kinds of cells arise by differentiation (the process by which cells or tissue change from relatively generalized to specialized kinds, during development). Even though the cells Dr. Gey took from Henrietta where cancerous, they still had the basic functions of a normal cell. Scientists were able to take HeLa cells and change them genetically, so they can form into cells that could behave like heart or tissue cells.
In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF)- In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a complex series of procedures used to treat fertility or genetic problems and assist with the conception of a child. During IVF, mature eggs are collected (retrieved) from the ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. Then the fertilized egg (embryo) or eggs are implanted in the uterus. One cycle of IVF takes about two weeks. Some of Lack's tissue samples behaved differently than others. Scientists learned to isolate one specific cell, multiply it, and start a cell line. Isolating one cell and keeping it alive is the basic technique for cloning and in-vitro fertilization.
Stem Cell Isolation- a stem cells is an undifferentiated cell of a multicellular organism (a cell that hasn't been given a specific function) that is capable of of giving rise to indefinitely more cells of the same type, from which certain other kinds of cells arise by differentiation (the process by which cells or tissue change from relatively generalized to specialized kinds, during development). Even though the cells Dr. Gey took from Henrietta where cancerous, they still had the basic functions of a normal cell. Scientists were able to take HeLa cells and change them genetically, so they can form into cells that could behave like heart or tissue cells.
1952 Virology- Researchers Infect HeLa cells with everything from mumps and measles to herpes an the modern filed of virology is born.
Vaccines Studies of HIV (AIDS) Cancer Research
Antiviral Therapies Studies of HPV Studies of Parkinson's Disease
Bioweapons Animal Cloning
Cryogenics Studies of TB
1955 Cloning- HeLa cells are the first to be successfully cloned or copied exactly
1966 Ethics- After a scientist injects HeLa cells into unwitting test subjects to study how cancer spreads, NIH investigation leads to the institution of medical review boards and informed consent by patients.
1989 DNA- Researchers working with HeLa cells discover that a molecule called telomerase protects the DNA in human chromosomes form damage due to aging.
DNA- Scientists accidentally poured a chemical on a HeLa cell that spread its tangled chromosomes. Later on, scientists used this technique to determine that humans have 46 chromosomes-23 pairs-not 48, which provided the basis for making several types of genetic diagnoses. This accidental discovery allowed scientists to help identify chromosomal disorders, discovering that patients with Downs Syndrome had an extra chromosome number 21, patients with Klinefelter Syndrome has an extra sex chromosome and those with Turner Syndrome lacked all or part of one.
Freezing of cells- the freezing of a cells is like pushing a pause button. Cell division, metabolism and everything else simply stops. Then they can be thawed and the processes start again, like pushing the play button. This helped in the processing of shipping not only HeLa cells but other cells. Also by freezing cells at various points, scientists believed that they could see the actual moment in which a normal cells became malignant or cancerous. This phenomenon became known as spontaneous transformation.
(Immortal)
Vaccines Studies of HIV (AIDS) Cancer Research
Antiviral Therapies Studies of HPV Studies of Parkinson's Disease
Bioweapons Animal Cloning
Cryogenics Studies of TB
1955 Cloning- HeLa cells are the first to be successfully cloned or copied exactly
1966 Ethics- After a scientist injects HeLa cells into unwitting test subjects to study how cancer spreads, NIH investigation leads to the institution of medical review boards and informed consent by patients.
1989 DNA- Researchers working with HeLa cells discover that a molecule called telomerase protects the DNA in human chromosomes form damage due to aging.
DNA- Scientists accidentally poured a chemical on a HeLa cell that spread its tangled chromosomes. Later on, scientists used this technique to determine that humans have 46 chromosomes-23 pairs-not 48, which provided the basis for making several types of genetic diagnoses. This accidental discovery allowed scientists to help identify chromosomal disorders, discovering that patients with Downs Syndrome had an extra chromosome number 21, patients with Klinefelter Syndrome has an extra sex chromosome and those with Turner Syndrome lacked all or part of one.
Freezing of cells- the freezing of a cells is like pushing a pause button. Cell division, metabolism and everything else simply stops. Then they can be thawed and the processes start again, like pushing the play button. This helped in the processing of shipping not only HeLa cells but other cells. Also by freezing cells at various points, scientists believed that they could see the actual moment in which a normal cells became malignant or cancerous. This phenomenon became known as spontaneous transformation.
(Immortal)
Photo (top) 300X photograph of heLa cells
http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2011/12/hela-cells
http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2011/12/hela-cells