One of the most widely used continuous cell lines for virology is the HeLa cell line, which was derived in 1951 from Henrietta Lacks. What is the origin of this amazing cell line?
In early 1951, Ms. Lacks, a 31-year old mother of five children, was found to have a malignant tumor of the cervix. During her examination at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, a sample of the tumor was removed and provided to Dr. George Gey. He was head of tissue culture research at Hopkins who for years had been attempting to produce a line of immortal human cells. When Ms. Lacks died in October 1951, Dr. Gey announced on national television that he had produced from Ms. Lacks’ tumor a line of cells that propagated as no other cells ever had before. He called them ‘HeLa’ cells in her honor, and showed a vial of the cells to the television audience.
HeLa cells have since been used in many laboratories all over the world to make countless research discoveries. For example, shortly after Dr. Gey announced the HeLa cell line, it was used to propagate poliovirus, an event that played an important role in the development of poliovirus vaccines. But Ms. Lacks’ family never learned about the important cells that were derived from her until 24 years after her death. The history of this event, described in the Johns Hopkins Magazine, is a commentary on the lack of informed consent common in medical research at the time.
My laboratory uses HeLa cells for propagating and studying many different viruses. We have maintained the cells in suspension cultures (pictured) since 1983. Over the course of 26 years, 600,000,000 HeLa cells have been produced in my laboratory each week, for a total of 800 billion cells. That is a lot of cells, but it’s nothing compared with the total number of cells – approximately 100 trillion – that make up a human.
Was the family ever compensated for this?
Are the cells you use today the same since 1951, or is there changes over time? Does the mutation that makes these cells immortal involve telomerase?
As far as I know the family was not compensated in any way.
We now know that HeLa cells contain the HPV genome, which is why they
are immortalized.
The cells have changed over time; they have been sub-cloned in many
different labs. Ours, for example, were sub-cloned to obtain maximum
levels of poliovirus replication. So the original cells probably don't
exist any longer, except in maybe a freezer at Hopkins. But they are
still very good cells.
To elaborate on my comment on HeLa cells – the HPV genome is present in the DNA of these cells, which is why they are immortalized. The HPV oncoproteins E6 and E7 are responsible for activation of telomerase. The active enzyme prevents shortening of telomeres that would lead to cell death
Does any one know if Hela cells can cause HPV in humans. Are there any references. Also, if Hela cells have to be handled in a BL2 facility, what about the lysates. There are several companies that sell Hela lysates but no one actually prescribes how to handle these lysates. Hmmmmmmmm…
I just learned about HeLa in a science class, it is truly amazing to me that after such a long time her cells still live on. It is very sad that she had to pass but everyone should be so grateful to what she's given us.
HeLa cells do not produce infectious HPV, and the integrated HPV genome is incomplete. Therefore it would be unlikely to contract HPV infection from these cells. Nevertheless, because they are of human origin, we handle them under BSL2 containment. As for lysates – I don't know of any guidelines governing their use. However, I would use good laboratory practice – gloves, eye protection, lab coat, etc.
Because the HeLa cells were exctracted from a cervical tumor – many, if not most of which, are caused by some strain of HPV – do we know if the cells contain HPV virus outside the intentionally incomplete genome used to immortalize them? If so, is this HPV strain active and contagious?
HeLa cells do not produce infectious HPV, because the viral genome in
these cells is not complete. No, there is no virus at all in these
cultures, so there is no danger of being infected with HPV.
Hi ProfVRR,
Thanks for your reply. We are starting to use these cells, and need verification of the non-contagious nature of the HPV (as well as the fact of general non-contamination of HeLa cells). Most of what I'm reading in the literature supports what you’re saying, but I was wondering if you can site some references (including, perhaps, your own – I’m assuming the “Prof†in the ProfVRR refers to professor 🙂 confirming this.
Also, do you know of a commercial lab which can do a “purity” verification that our HeLa cells have not been contaminated by any other contagions (prior to our receiving them)?
Many thanks!
Mike
P.s. You can contact me directly at summerbooted@yahoo.com
This is really interesting. Although I have not used Hela cells before we have always come across this cell line in publications. It is definately extraordinary and makes good reading.
We have just learned about HeLa in a science class, it is truly amazing to me that after such a long time her cells still live on.
Quite a interesting read… was searching for something else..but glad i landed on this page. Nice article
I read somewhwre that the cells evolved into a solitary unicelleular organisms, or was that just a rumor?
HeLa cells never evolved into a solitary organism; just a rumor.
Hi rizzo … @Profvrr pointed me to your comment — I'm the author of a book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is being published by Crown on February 9th. It tells the story of the HeLa cell line, the woman those cells came from, and her family.
The idea that HeLa had evolved into a single celled organism was more of a theory than a rumor: In the early 90s, a few evolutionary biologists suggested that HeLa was “no longer human,” because its DNA had mutated and changed so much from the original sample that it had become its own organism. Discover magazine actually did a story about that theory in 1992 — it's online here if you'd like to read it.
But over all the years of all the scientists who used these cells, we have made a few Henritta Lacks all over the world.
Not true, I had a drink with a solitary organism named Hela last weekend.
just as the flower has used the vegetarian
cancer has captivated the human
So it would seem viable to eventually figure out a way to use some kind of gene therapy procedure to stop the aging process in human cells at some point. Does this seem feasible in the near future or am I adding some science fiction to this article?
Is there any ongoing research in this area ?
Stopping aging in humans is certainly not science fiction. Listen to
http://www.twit.tv/fib2 for some background on this. Dr. Guarente
reported in 1999 that increased activity of the Sir2 protein slows
aging in yeast. Guarente has hypothesized that caloric restriction
slows aging by activation of these proteins. His company, Sirtis
Pharmaceuticals, is testing drugs that extend the human lifespan.
Pingback: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
i was so interested to find out about this in biology class.
mimi
Nashville,tn
I'm just curious. If HPV18 is what makes these cells immortal, then why not just cultivate other cervical cancer biopsies from other patients? Isn't cervical cancer somewhat common? And most, if not all, cervical cancer is caused by HPV, correct? So, what makes HELA so special?
Also, I thought all cancer cells were immortal, regardless of HPV specific oncogenes.
Dr. Gey committed and unethical act and should have faced appropriate consequences. Mrs. Lacks family should be compensated for these damages.
@Viv: I am an RN. I agree with you and was disheartened to read an article about the history of HeLa cells. A sample of a woman's tissue was taken from her cervix as she lay dying. The sample was not used to cure her, ofcourse, because she died. This may have been unavioidable given the aggressive nature of her cancer. But she was evidently regarded as a petrie dish while the actual tissue sample was given a “name in her honor” and sent around the world to be experimented on. All this without her consent. The argument may be that now her sample has been replicated too much to be considered human. But I hope Ms Skloots book brings back the human face behind these miracle HeLa cells.
Truly amazing…the next step is obviously to utilize the knowledge of the enzyme Telomerase to lengthen the lifespan of the human being. Definitely years away I admit…but worth a speculation or two…
To take this woman's tissue and use it without the family permission is theft. Just like they were to take you organs if you are not an organ donor. Totally illegal.
Did you read the article?
The article is about the fact she was not paid, it's a short article but it mentions this several times.d
I hope you can take the time from your busy day to have a look at it
English Please .. Aw just give the family some money.
Makes for good reading and is very interesting , but would like to know if Mrs Lacks Family was ever finacially benifited , from John Hopkins Or the Dr . Whom I feel took part of Mrs Lacks , and did test on her body and did not pay her or her family for the money they made off that.
Do other people have the same kind of cells?
I read an article about HeLa cells as a non- scientist ( just researcher) I want to know what they can do ,Ive read that HeLa cells are used all over the world and in vaccines all around the world in the past etc, also HeLa cells convert every living cell they come into contact with into HeLa cells, wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contaminated_cell_lines and whale.to/vaccine/bayly.html would this change the natural DNA of a fetus? like a form of post humanism? or would it turn every one into clones of Henrietta Lacks ? or add to the racial lineage of humanity Henrietta Lacks DNA or RNA code due to vaccine contamination of HeLa cells?
An article in Nytimes on this topic, which came out yesterday: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/health/02seco…
I wonder how many people contracted polio from, had a disabling reaction to or died from the polio vaccine that her cells helped to develop?! Sorry, I'm no doc, but it doesn't make sense to me…take cells from a malignant cervical tumor which have the HPV genome in them, grow them in a dish because they grow at an astronomical rate and resist cell death, add another disease to them and then shoot them into someone else? Ewwww…sounds like a witches brew! No thank you! I'd rather have a diet full of rich, colorful living foods that help my body heal itself! BTW, you don't have to look far to find that HeLa cells are considered at biosafety level two along with hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, Salmonella, mumps, measles and HIV! These pharmaceutical vultures have made a lot of money off Henrietta's blood!
In my opinion that was another way of them using the minorities as guinea pigs to benefit themselves without compensatingt her family,the next thing they will annialate our race, using our tissue to heal them.
No poliovaccine was EVER produced in HeLa cells. They are produced in
primary cells which are not transformed. HeLa cells were used to test
sera from people immunized with poliovaccine for the presence of
neutralizing antibodies.
ALL : Assume, and confidently, that Gey never financially benefitted. Consider the societal culture of the post-war world at the time. His benefit (and motivation) would have been the excitement and thrill of a dramatic, noteworthy, reknownding medical and scientific breakthrough. Think about it – in an era where medical science was exploding with looking for ways and opportunities to benefit mankind, such as cures for Polio and Tuberculosis.
Profit wasn't even considerations back in those days – especially not in the research world. And, the ultimate long-term use of the cells couldn't even remotely have been visioned by him or even JH, nor medical-related companies until years and years later.
FACT: the other two assisting doctors sure as heck never benefitted either. My Dad was one of them and I can confirm his financial status in the 50's through 90's and at his and my mother's passing, (as well as his associate via stories I heard). And my subsequent status!
Consent ethics, HIPPA, Institutions financial-prognosing of benefactorial activities, and those aspects of Present modern medical also were not even a glimmer in anyone's eye back then – I believe one can comfortably assume. But the evolution of those ethical advancements over the subsequent 60 years, as a result, certainly have had benefactors by evolutionary measures taken.
In today's world, or even in 20 years ago's world; compensation/consideration/divulging are an entirely different subject and world than back in 1951 and even the 10 or more years following 51'.
Elizabeth,
I respect that you are a RN. My mother was a RN and my father was a physician and surgeon.
I encourage you to research the specifics further – you will arrive at Facts to supplement opinion.
Facts:
1) In the 40's and early 50's, there was a different socio-medical ethics and climate. All the initiating events were in 1951. Now, if you want to delve into compensating the surviving family, look to those institutions who are still profiting in some manner in this day and age where the guidelines and boundaries are refined, regulated, and where there is legal precedence.
2) Dr. Gey didn't KNOW what was about to occur, didn't KNOW that there was a patient that might happen to be a key to something unprecedented, he wasn't and hadn't been LOOKING for that right situation to 'walk in the door'. FACT: the presiding physician in Henrietta's diagnosis and treatment encountered a cancerous growth that had a look and texture he had never seen. He biopsied a portion of the growth and sent it to the JH lab to have it tested so he could know what he was dealing with. This all part of common medical process than, and that process still exists today; albeit today, release forms are needed for the sample to be removed and tested – a medical information release and risk management practice that is a direct downstream benefit and evolution stemming form this specific event that occurred 50+ years ago.
3) Dr. Gey was not on an existing medical mission or experiment to find an unsuspecting human patient who happened to be the one human in life to have a form of cancer that could be sustained in a laboratory environment. He did not have any advance awareness that this one in a lifetime medical situation would walk in the JH door. He did not have any advance notice that she did walk in the door. He did not know that a doctor was treating an ailing patient who just happened to be a person whose body was housing a once in known medical history situation. He did not go ask for, to get, a medical sample. The sample came to him FROM the treating physician. He did not know that a medical breakthrough had just been supplied to him when it was supplied to him.
The HeLa discovery was an unexpected by-product from medical research that had been on-going – a human cancer sample actually lived, and longer than expected. Imaging their course of events –
“Hmmm – this sample hasn't died yet. That is unusual. I wonder if it could possibly be handled in some manner; I wonder if we can keep it living… Hmmm – well, why not – lets try it…” It was a research doctor, and two assistants who were physicians to-be, working on their internships – no more, no less. No one had any idea, nor were they on a mission, nor on any path to be super-secret from the family, nor did they have visions of being rich or ruffians. And all was within the burgeoning late 40's and early 50's of a boom in medical research and advancement.
4) Best medical efforts available at the time were used to treat her. She died weeks after the sample was found to survive in the laboratory environment. Seriously, there wasn't the 2000's era amount of cancer information available then that there is now. There was no internet or cell phones or computers to share, compile, investigate or collaborate. People got on Ford Tri-Motor airplanes and traveled distances just to be able to discuss things and look in each other's microscopes. No Fed Express to overnight samples to other far away countries. My teenage niece died in the 1990's of a brain tumor after a 7 year on-and-off battle that included multiple treatments. Dr Gey and my father's work didn't save her. But perhaps some of their pioneering work did benefit her in some fashion; Someone had to come up with the chemotherapy treatment discovery, right? And how could they have ever done that if there wasn't a known lab cancer cell the theory could be tested on?
5) Fact – there was no precedent, regulations, guidelines, emerging thought, or BS lawsuits that had occurred to frame or guide the medical community on how to do things. No Monday Quarterbacking angles that they 'should have been thinking about her or her family's rights and well-being when they were doing it”. There was no such guidance or ethics/socio-framework like that back then. Nor was there even in 20 years later. It is still evolving these days by the legal community. Fact: WHAT THEY WERE DOING WAS GOOD STUFF. It was furthering the medical world years later in being able to treat people who suffered from various cancer inflictions. And, note, it was crucial and cornerstone work in the treatment and ultimate world-wide prevention of Polio. Have you ever treated a patient with Polio? Know any others in your medical networking who have? My mother, who was a RN in the 50's, did. Quite a few. Medical advancements have essentially eradicated common polio from new human life in the past 3 decades.
6) If you were to talk to my father, or any of his patients, you would learn that he was incredibly human-condition and concern-oriented. Had he practiced in a different era, had this event occurred 30 years later when there was a dramatic change in liability in medical treatment, they family sure would have known. In 1951, no such framework existed, nor did it 10, 20, 30, 100 years earlier either.
7) 'All this without her consent'. HUH? A woman, scared to death as she has in the past few days begun bleeding for unknown reasons, on an increasing amount and frequency, and who when initially examined was informed in some manner that she definitely had a complex ailment. There was no precedent, or awareness, or framework for knowing that a consent request would become mandated law 50 years later, no patient knowledge that the doctor 50 years later would be regulated and required to ask. But, I do wager that she darn well wanted the physician to do anything he could to correct her ailment; then when her prognosis rapidly worsened, just to save her somehow. And I suspect the family was in the same thought process.
There was no conspiracy theory to not let the family know.
Dr. Gey and his two assistants, and the 'ruthless ruffian' attendant physician, and that darned JH institution, were nothing more than 'lucky' (and 'unlucky' when examined through filtered modern frameworked rationalizing) – a person happened to walk in the door, a sample biopsied from a patient, a research team happened to be available with the knowledge, tools, talent, time, and also the good fortune, to happen to fund that a tissue sample did something no human sample had ever done in the history of known medicine.
Research, compile facts, be willing to expand the context of your research to learn about and absorb prevailing times and framework people existed and operated in, and then try to factor that into your opinion foundations.
the family of hennerita lacks was IMMORTAL! D:
what bad person to use other cell and din not give permission to the family even Ms, Lacks has died.
I have never read such an idiotic chain of rhetoric in my life.
a. The removal of the cells from Mr. Lacks had no effect on her treatment or the course of her disease.
b. The cells were not induced to replicate; it was a naturally occuring phenomenon.
c. No one who knew about the cells used them for profit.
d. Mrs. Lacks, albeit unknowingly, has benefitted all mankind. Who among us would not do that
willingly?
e. We are all familiar with the old saw about the intrinsic value of the human body being a few
dollars. What would have been just compensation for a few cells?
f. No one knew the contribution Mrs. Lacks cells would make until long after her death.
g. Do you really think that if Mrs. Lacks could make a decision now she would demur?
h. Any of you may benefit immeasurably from the derivatives of Mrs. Lacks unknowing
contribution. Read (g.) again.
i. Would you want your cells used for such benefit to mankind under similar circumstances.
And finally, if the answer to the last query is no, well . . .
Although Hopkins and Gey didn't make money on Henrietta's cells, MANY companies did and continue to do so – from vaccine producers to researchers (who make federal money to use the cells) to those who mass-produce and sell these cells. I'm nearly done with Skloot's book – it's fantastic (reading a pre-pub copy), and I believe her family should somehow be compensated. Yes, it's wonderful to help humanity and I know there were no structures in place then to require informed consent – but her family SHOULD be compensated! This was, after all, her tissue that made all of these financial transactions and medical breakthroughs (that led to additional financial transactions) possible. Someone IS getting rich on her tissues. Is there any way to ensure that her family receives some benefit? It's time they got something back.
You need to mention that this line came from an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks
As a FNP and African American woman I was really amazed to find what HeLa cell have done for our health care. I understand she was taken to Johns Hopkins because it was '1951'. As a woman of color this was the only location she was able to receive care. But, beyond that I can understand that these cells were removed as researchers were trying to replicate cells. Also as a woman, there was not enough known to treat Mrs Lacks to maintain her life.
this is true
So does the HPV genome in this cell line means that she had an HPV infection, the result of which was the cervical cancer she was being seen for? Also, because women today acquire cervical cancer resulting from HPV, would using population samples of these tumors give a genetic diversity that could elucidate other genetic questions? By this I mean using a patient that also suffers or has a susceptibility to other genetic diseases or is it just easier to introduce the diseases into the cell line separately? lastly, does HPV have a preference for the the cervical cells or can you use an HPV infection to produce cancer cell lines in any kind of tissue?
Thanks, I was just very interested in your work. I had no idea HPV played a role in this cell line.
Angie
That is such BS, he did not mae the cells in her honor, they put it like that for records, so they know who they belong to, they have to put the first two letters of the first and last name… And Henrietta at the time, as well as her family did not know for more than 2o years that they took the cells in the first place.
Yes, Henrietta's cervical cancer was caused by HPV, most likely the
genome integrated into HeLa cells. The viruses infect only squamous
epithelial cells so it's not possible to produce transformed lines
from other tissues. As for your second question – it's possible to use
cells such as HeLa to understand cancer because the cells become
transformed. If genetic diseases don't express an obvious phenotype in
cultured cells, then it would not be easy to study them.
Excellent summary of the scientific research realm of the 1950's and 60's and sadly 70's.
I have participated in cancer research for a very short time of my professional career and it is very hard for the general public to understand how research works today, never mind back then. We owe much to these pioneer scientists!
I absolutely loved your book!!!! Anyone interested in early scientific achievements and the real people behind the story will find this a must read! Thank you for your diligent research, understanding and sensitivity of the Lacks family and for a fascinating story.
JHG