Henrietta Lacks

[DrmDoc]

Is anyone here familiar with the contribution of Henrietta Lacks to immunology, microbiology, chromosome study, and an endless array of other scientific endeavors? Well, it seems that she has provided medical science with the first and only source of immortal, lab grown human cells. Mrs. Lacks tumor cells, extracted during her cervical cancer surgery, have been replicated and continually used in medical research around the world since 1951. This Ted-Ed video link discusses Mrs. Lacks contribution and an array of medical discoveries that would not have been possible without her extraordinary cells. Mrs. Lacks, who was African American, died of cervical cancer in 1951. She was not aware that her tumor cells would be used for research and her family was not informed until the late 1970s. I find myself wanting to know more about Mrs. Lacks and the medical breakthroughs her contribution continually provides.

[Endy0816]

Wikipedia has biographical information.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks

 

HeLa is the specific name of that line of immortal cells.

 

[CharonY]

She is certainly not the only source of immortalized human cells (there are many more established lines) and may not even be the first cell line, but I am pretty sure it is the first successfully established immortalized cell line.

This is also a case of questionable research ethics as her cells were taken and used without her knowledge or consent (which would be against all recent ethical guidelines).

On a different note, since HeLa cells grow pretty fast and robustly (at least compared to many other cell lines), many labs had problem that they overgrew other tissues. As a result some studies were faulty as they were accidentally conducted with HeLa instead of the actual cells of interest.

 

In terms of medical breakthroughs, it is probably accurate to characterize them as workhorses, a standard tool for human analyses (similar to E. coli as a microbial model). That being said, since more and more cell lines are available and since it is known that different cell lines react very differently to stimuli, they are not as important as they once were.

[Daecon]

I'd not heard that name for years until The X Files started up again a couple of weeks ago.

[DrmDoc]

She is certainly not the only source of immortalized human cells (there are many more established lines) and may not even be the first cell line, but I am pretty sure it is the first successfully established immortalized cell line.

This is also a case of questionable research ethics as her cells were taken and used without her knowledge or consent (which would be against all recent ethical guidelines).

On a different note, since HeLa cells grow pretty fast and robustly (at least compared to many other cell lines), many labs had problem that they overgrew other tissues. As a result some studies were faulty as they were accidentally conducted with HeLa instead of the actual cells of interest.

 

In terms of medical breakthroughs, it is probably accurate to characterize them as workhorses, a standard tool for human analyses (similar to E. coli as a microbial model). That being said, since more and more cell lines are available and since it is known that different cell lines react very differently to stimuli, they are not as important as they once were.

Perhaps I misunderstood the tone of your comments but are your saying that the value of this African American's illicitly obtained immortal cell line was overstated because of pre-existing cell lines and that the measure of her line's importance to medical research was or is inconsequential?

[swansont]

Perhaps I misunderstood the tone of your comments but are your saying that the value of this African American's illicitly obtained immortal cell line was overstated because of pre-existing cell lines and that the measure of her line's importance to medical research was or is inconsequential?

 

Did we read the same post? I don't see how any of this follows from what I read.

[CharonY]

I do not either. What has been misstated by OP that is the only source of immortalized cell lines. It is also somewhat relevant to put the use in historic context, but obviously it is hard to tell whether other models would have become more popular if HeLa wasn't around and how it may have slowed down research. That being said, it is still heavily used, but research has progressed, obviously. Related to that we do have improved techniques to create and maintain cell lines, although it is still far from trivial.

[Endy0816]

Times have changed since when the cancerous cells were then legally obtained. Still an issue today though depending on the specific circumstances.

 

We have more cell lines available today. Logical that an older line would have less value.

 

X posted - slow typing on phone

Edited February 10, 2016 by Endy0816

[DrmDoc]

Did we read the same post? I don't see how any of this follows from what I read.

 

 

I do not either. What has been misstated by OP that is the only source of immortalized cell lines. It is also somewhat relevant to put the use in historic context, but obviously it is hard to tell whether other models would have become more popular if HeLa wasn't around and how it may have slowed down research. That being said, it is still heavily used, but research has progressed, obviously. Related to that we do have improved techniques to create and maintain cell lines, although it is still far from trivial.

Perhaps you misinterpreted the tone of my inquiry as I did your intial reply. Being unfamiliar as I am with Mrs. Lacks contribution, your initial reply suggested to me that Hela was overstated by my source. You wrote that Hela "may not even be the first [immortalized] line" and then, directly after wrote "I am pretty sure it was the first successfully immortalized cell line." ​In subsequent comments you wrote how the robust nature of Hela led to "faulty" research results. Further still, your comments seemed to lessen Hela's significance as merely a "workhorse" and "not as important as they once were" rather than the continuous source of medical breakthroughs and discoveries as my source suggests. I was merely asking for clarification as you seemed to be more knowledgeable than I on this subject. As the negative ratings and your subsequent reply suggests, the written word isn't always received the way it is intended. Nevertheless, thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Edited February 10, 2016 by DrmDoc

[CharonY]

The part about the cell lines was just to emphasize that even at that time there was research on cell lines. The issue there is that they do not proliferate much and you have establish new lines fairly soon (I am not 100% sure what the precise status at that time was, though). The fact that they were immortalized was a huge convenience factor as establishing a cell line takes a huge amount time and has a limited use.

The real nice thing was that you eliminate some level of biological variability as you have the precise same cell line (which is now common practice in many areas). However, the convenience came at the cost that I mentioned (i.e. it started contaminating the other cultures), but obviously it was due to fault epxerimentators (after all, cell lines are often maintained by students).

 

The workhorse part is I guess a common difference in view between scientists and the public. The latter likes things that are shiny, unique and exceptional. The scientist values reliability and reproducibility above all else. A workhorse is a fair characterization and precisely why it is well liked and used. Not because it is unique. Over the years HeLa got more problems, precisely because it is an old cell line. It was found that they accumulated mutations and increased viral loads and as a consequence there may be HeLas around with somewhat different properties. That is also not something unique for old cell lines, however being the first it saw probably more abuse than newer ones.

[DrmDoc]

The workhorse part is I guess a common difference in view between scientists and the public. The latter likes things that are shiny, unique and exceptional. The scientist values reliability and reproducibility above all else. A workhorse is a fair characterization and precisely why it is well liked and used. Not because it is unique. Over the years HeLa got more problems, precisely because it is an old cell line. It was found that they accumulated mutations and increased viral loads and as a consequence there may be HeLas around with somewhat different properties. That is also not something unique for old cell lines, however being the first it saw probably more abuse than newer ones.

Interesting; if I may inquire for further study, what are the other prominent immortal cell lines and do you have a link to your source? Their history and likely contributions are intriguing given their purported unique qualities.

Edited February 10, 2016 by DrmDoc

[CharonY]

Geez there are hundreds around. There are many techniques now to create them (other than isolate them).

Note that the point is that they are hopefully not unique. Uniqueness would limit their use as they are often used as representative of the tissue they come from. Although there is a move away from that as sometimes their ability to proliferate indefinitely makes them more useful for tumor research.

From random memory: BJ-5ta, Chon, Jurkat, BeWo, ASC52telo, HepG2, UACC-893, HEK 293 and many many more. You can google them, if you want but I am not sure what you expect to find. HeLa was historically significant as it was one of the first, it was/is very popular and also is connected to ethical issues with use of human material without consent.

[DrmDoc]

I appreciate the info. What I find so interesting about all this it the term immortal ​and what that suggests relative to human cell study. Thanks again.

[CharonY]

It just means that the cell line can be cultured indefinitely. Most cells in culture will only grow so much and stop.

Cancer cells are exceptions, for example. For most cell biologists the only interesting bit is that you can just transfer them and let them grow again for new experiments instead of starting cell lines from scratch.

[Endy0816]

Do you happen to know whether it utilizes telomerase, alternate telomere lengthening or both?

[CharonY]

HeLa or other cell lines? For the latter there are numerous approaches. One of the more popular ones are immortalized using hTERT (human telomrease reverse transcriptase) often with e.g. Bmi1 which silences tumore repression proteins. So to answer your question, yes the telomerase is one target. As usual our control is pretty rough though (i.e. overexpression in this case).

Often these cells are closer to primary cell lines in their behaviour and are preferentially used over isolated cells from tumors such as HeLa.

 

There other ways to break cell cycle controls which includes the use of viruses such as SV40. It generates a protein that binds to the famous p53 and Rb which are regulators of cell cycles. Also, one can achieve the effects by the use siRNA on the same targets.

Edited February 11, 2016 by CharonY

[Endy0816]

Was mainly curious about HeLa, but interesting nonetheless. Thanks.

 

How do you keep cell lines stable? Only thing I can think of is artificial selection.

[CharonY]

I do not understand what you mean with "artificial selection". If they are immortalized you just put some cells into fresh media, let them grow, rinse and repeat. General issue is that if they are very old they may gain mutations that may affect experiments. The only way is to start over either from originally frozen aliquots or establish a fresh line.

 

With HeLa I am not entirely sure. In fact I am not even sure whether it is known what type of mutations originally disrupted their cell cycle control. The issue is that it has by now accumulated a massive amount of viruses and has likely mutated over the years even further. In fact there are many parallel HeLa strains that behave rather differently due to the respective defects they accumulated. In some cases they have even duplicated chromosomes, for example. That is one of the reasons why HeLa is not that popular as a model system anymore. It is still popular if it is not important that they do not behave like normal cells, as these cells are extremely easy to keep alive.

Edited February 12, 2016 by CharonY

[Xalatan]

She is the donor source of HeLa cells, an immortalised cervical cancer cell line.

[Endy0816]

It seems like they would just evolve to lab conditions though. I was thinking it would be like simulations where you can select against the type you don't want or for the type you do want.

[CharonY]

It seems like they would just evolve to lab conditions though. I was thinking it would be like simulations where you can select against the type you don't want or for the type you do want.

 

This logic does not hold well with non-free living cells. Remember, in their natural environment (i.e. as part of an organism) their normal regulation limits their growth. Simple selective conditions do not necessary yield the more normal cells and under most you would enrich for fast growers. And selecting for non-growth, well, you immortalized them in order to overcome this, so that does not work either.

 

There are more complications including that if you start with omni- or pluripotent cells you will end up with a varied cell population. Finally, there is nothing that you can do with regard to mutations. This happens in the body as well as the dish.

What you typically have to do is to characterize them e.g. microscopically and discard them once they behave differently.

Edited February 12, 2016 by CharonY

[Endy0816]

Wow, really different than I thought. I knew that some of the debugging aspects of the sim were wildly unrealistic, but seems even some of the more basic aspects are as well.

 

Thank you for sharing your professional experience, not exactly a "Raising Immortal Cells For Dummies" book out there.

[Carbonerd]

I was working with her cells (well, technically not her, but she's the original source) during my cervical cancer research. They are just great for lab work due to its survivability.

[CharonY]

Wow, really different than I thought. I knew that some of the debugging aspects of the sim were wildly unrealistic, but seems even some of the more basic aspects are as well.

 

Thank you for sharing your professional experience, not exactly a "Raising Immortal Cells For Dummies" book out there.

 

Well, there is "Stem Cells for Dummies", I have not read it, but it could be something in that area.

 

 

I was working with her cells (well, technically not her, but she's the original source) during my cervical cancer research. They are just great for lab work due to its survivability.

 

Indeed. You can grow them in the sink, as the saying goes.

[DrmDoc]

Here is a SciShow YouTube video released August 1st, which is the 96th anniversity of Henrietta Lacks birthday. Enjoy!