HeLa Cells

[Bixby]

If you grew Hela cells for 100's of years in say a swimming pool full of growing medium. what would it grow into? What would it look like?

[CharonY]

My guess is that the swimming pool would be full of bacteria and fungi in no time.

[Bixby]

My guess is that the swimming pool would be full of bacteria and fungi in no time.

 

If the bacteria and fungi could be prevented, if Hela cells could be grown in lab-type conditions for a very long period of time and on a large scale like this. What would the cells grow into? what form would the tissue take? What would it look like to the naked eye?

[CharonY]

Assuming your swimming pool is a perfect fermenter you will get a huge lump of cells, depending on agitation.

[Bixby]

Assuming your swimming pool is a perfect fermenter you will get a huge lump of cells, depending on agitation.

 

 

And to the naked eye it would look like ......? if large quantities of hela cells have never been grown then I assume no one will actually know what it would look like to the naked eye. I tried to find pictures of hela cells but but could only turn up what they look like at a microscopic level but no pictures of what a huge 'lump of cells' would look like.

 

Would the resulting 'lump of cells' form a tumor?

 

Therotically, assuming constant nourishment how long would it take for the lump of cells to reach the size of a car? a house? Mount Everest?

[Bixby]

 

New here so not sure what to make of the low number of responses to my questions.

 

 

[SMF]

Cultured cells grow as a sheet on a flat plate because this is the only way all the cells can have access to oxygen and nutrients. Thicker tissues in a body are heavily invested with a capillary bed. You couldn't grow a golf ball sized lump, much less a swimming pool full. If you were to grow a massive volume of HeLa cells on plates and scrape them into a swimming pool it would be a semitransparent mass with the consistency of a thick gravy. If you were to do such a useless thing the family of Henrietta Lacks (HeLa), the woman from which the cell line was derived, might complain. You should do a little web research on Lacks because her story is interesting and an important ethical case. She died of the cancer from which the cell line was developed and the cells were collected without her knowledge so, because this is a widely used and important immortal line, there is probably more of her alive today than when there was just her. I think there was a lawsuit by the family to try to obtain some compensation.

[Bixby]

Cultured cells grow as a sheet on a flat plate because this is the only way all the cells can have access to oxygen and nutrients. Thicker tissues in a body are heavily invested with a capillary bed. You couldn't grow a golf ball sized lump, much less a swimming pool full. If you were to grow a massive volume of HeLa cells on plates and scrape them into a swimming pool it would be a semitransparent mass with the consistency of a thick gravy. If you were to do such a useless thing the family of Henrietta Lacks (HeLa), the woman from which the cell line was derived, might complain. You should do a little web research on Lacks because her story is interesting and an important ethical case. She died of the cancer from which the cell line was developed and the cells were collected without her knowledge so, because this is a widely used and important immortal line, there is probably more of her alive today than when there was just her. I think there was a lawsuit by the family to try to obtain some compensation.

 

Thank you for your answers to my questions on growing a large quanity of HeLa cells and thanks for sharing your thoughts on the usefulness of such an endeavor.

 

I was thinking of the cells being grown undisturbed for a long period of time IN something the size of a swmming pool (as opposed to being grown in smaller areas and then 'scraped' into the pool). But either way you seem to be saying that the cells would create a sheet over the top of this large amount of growing medium and then STOP growing (i.e. they would simply remain as a sheet of cells no matter how 'deep' the growing medium was and no matter how long they were left there). My choice of a "swimming pool" has no significance to my question it was just a convenient visualization for something much much 'bigger' than what these cells are usually grown in.

 

I notice that CharonY used the term "lump" to describe the cells whereas you visualize a 'sheet'

 

I became familiar with the background story of Henrietta Lacks some time ago and I agree it is an extremely interesting one.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Bixby

[SMF]

Bixby:

 

You are welcome.

 

SM

[Bixby]

Looking into the "sheet" formation of HeLa cells I thought surely there's a way of creating a 3D environment. And after some searches I came across this:

 

 

http://www.invitrogen.com/site/us/en/home/Products-and-Services/Applications/Cell-Culture/3D-Cell-Culture/3D_Cell_Culture-Misc/AlgiMatrix.html

 

So this suggests that Hela cells can perhaps be cultivated in non-sheet colonies?

[SMF]

Bixby, the AlgiMatrix system just provides a surface that is folded and cut up into a sponge. The shape of the sponge determines the shape of the cell mass, but nothing more. HeLa cells are cancer versions of a comitted cell, they are not stem cells that can generate all of the connective tissue and epithelial cells that makes up a breast (I think that Henrietta Lacks had breast cancer). The cells are beyond the developmental stage where they are able to generate a structure. Your persistence on this topic suggests that you have some ideas about this. If we knew what sort of answers you were hoping to get, we might be able to refer you to a knowledge area. SM

[Bixby]

Bixby, the AlgiMatrix system just provides a surface that is folded and cut up into a sponge. The shape of the sponge determines the shape of the cell mass, but nothing more. HeLa cells are cancer versions of a comitted cell, they are not stem cells that can generate all of the connective tissue and epithelial cells that makes up a breast (I think that Henrietta Lacks had breast cancer). The cells are beyond the developmental stage where they are able to generate a structure. Your persistence on this topic suggests that you have some ideas about this. If we knew what sort of answers you were hoping to get, we might be able to refer you to a knowledge area. SM

 

Thanks for sharing what you know SMF. I'm still interested to know if anyone has ever actually grown a large quantity of Hela cells in one location. I was hoping for a yes, no or don't know answer.

 

I am simply exploring the subject. I am hoping to get accurate answers and then seeking clarification when information seems (to me at least) to be potentially inaccurate or contradictory in order to increase my understanding. I have ideas but (and forgive the corny analogy) these ideas are like stem cells and need the nourishment of accurate information before I know what they will evolve into.

 

Yes. If you can refer me to a knowledge area on this subject - that would be prepared to answer the kinds of questions I have - I would very much appreciate that.

Edited March 3, 2011 by Bixby

[alpha2cen]

If you grew Hela cells for 100's of years in say a swimming pool full of growing medium. what would it grow into? What would it look like?

 

The cells growing pattern is dependent on cell property, oxygen supply, nutrition supply, waste product removal and fluid dynamical environment, etc..

If this condition is not proper, cells will die. To improve these property, researchers develop many cultivation methods.

Very simple method is to grow cells in the Petri-dish. But this method has big mass transfer restriction.

One of the advanced methods is using a cell culture folder. The cell culture folder have many empty voids inside.

And, to improve mass transfer, we make fluid flow through the cell culture folder.

Edited March 4, 2011 by alpha2cen