There was a lot of medical research happening with HeLa cells. But eventually, Henrietta Lacks’ family understandably became upset. I decided not to let them.”Īt the time, it was standard to take tumour cells for research without consent. He said, “All I remember is that she had this disease, and right after she died they called me in the office wanting to get my permission to take a sample of some kind. An article in Ebony magazine in 1976 featured a quote from her husband. Neither Lacks nor her family ever gave their permission for her cells to be taken. However, their use raises many important ethical questions. HeLa cells have made many medical advances possible. Researchers wanted to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity. Henrietta Lacks' (HeLa) cells traveled in some of the first missions to space. This means that sometimes, scientists who think they are studying other kinds of cells are actually studying HeLa cells! Like other cells, HeLa cells can spread through the air in labs and outcompete other cells. But ironically, this durability has caused some problems, too. The durability of HeLa cells has made them very useful for medical science. Researchers have also used HeLa cells in the search for cures for hemophilia, herpes, influenza, leukemia and Parkinson’s disease. HPV can cause genital warts and cervical cancer. Researchers have also been able to develop vaccines for infections such as polio and human papillomavirus (HPV). Researchers infect cells with a virus like measles or mumps and observe how it affects them. In particular, HeLa cells have helped scientists better understand a variety of viral infections. Scanning electron microscope image of newly divided HeLa cells (Source: National Institutes of Health via Wikimedia Commons). When given a constant supply of nutrients, they produced a new generation of cells in less than 24 hours. Researchers originally took HeLa cells from an aggressive cervical cancer tumour. They provided researchers with the first immortal human cell line ever grown in a laboratory. But when all the cells in a line died, they had to start over with a new one. Working with a single cell line allowed researchers to verify their results and build on previous research. A cell line refers to all the generations of cells produced from a specific culture of cells. However, they had a lot of trouble keeping individual cell lines alive. Scientists were studying human cells long before they started using HeLa cells. Today, there are trillions more HeLa cells growing in laboratories than there ever were in Henrietta Lacks' body! How do HeLa cells work in biomedical research? But until recently, very few people knew of or acknowledged the contributions of Henrietta Lacks. Lacks’ chromosomes and proteins have been studied in so much detail that scientists know their every quirk. In biomedical research, HeLa cells are as important as lab rats and petri dishes. Cells being prepared in a tissue culture lab (Source: elkor via iStockphotos).
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