DiscoverScroll article

HeLa () is an immortalized cell line used in scientific research.

It is the oldest human cell line and one of the most commonly used. HeLa cells are durable and prolific, allowing for extensive applications in scientific study. The line is derived from cervical cancer cells taken on February 8, 1951, from Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old African-American woman, after whom the line is named. Lacks died of cancer on October 4, 1951. The cells from Lacks's cancerous cervical tumor were taken without her knowledge, which was common practice in the United States at the time. Cell biologist George Otto Gey found that they could be kept alive, and developed a cell line. Previously, cells cultured from other human cells would survive for only a few days, but cells from Lacks's tumor behaved differently.

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was admitted to the Johns Hopkins Hospital with symptoms of irregular vaginal bleeding; she was subsequently treated for cervical cancer. Her cervical biopsy supplied samples of tissue for clinical evaluation and research by George Otto Gey, head of the Tissue Culture Laboratory. When staff at Johns Hopkins realized this, a staff physician contacted the Lacks family and sought DNA samples to help identify which non-HeLa cultures were contaminated with HeLa cells. There are many strains of HeLa cells, because they mutate during division in cell cultures, but all HeLa cells are descended from the same tumor cells removed from Lacks. The total number of HeLa cells that have been propagated in cell culture far exceeds the total number of cells that were in Henrietta Lacks's body.

Lacks' family also had no access to her patient files and had no say in who received HeLa cells or what they would be used for.

Since then, HeLa cells have "continually been used for research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and countless other scientific pursuits." According to author Rebecca Skloot, by 2009, "more than 60,000 scientific articles had been published about research done on HeLa , and that number was increasing steadily at a rate of more than 300 papers each month."

A large volume of HeLa cells were needed for the testing of Salk's polio vaccine, prompting the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) to find a facility capable of mass-producing HeLa cells.

In 1979, scientists learned that the measles virus constantly mutates when it infects HeLa cells, and in 2019 they found that Zika cannot multiply in HeLa cells.

HeLa cells have been used in research involving fullerenes to induce apoptosis as a part of photodynamic therapy, as well as in in vitro cancer research using cell lines.

The HeLa cell line was derived for use in cancer research. Like many other cancer cells, HeLa cells have an active version of telomerase during cell division, which copies telomeres over and over again.

Horizontal gene transfer from human papillomavirus 18 (HPV18) to human cervical cells created the HeLa genome, which is different from Henrietta Lacks's genome in various ways, including the number of chromosomes.

The degree of HeLa cell contamination among other cell types is unknown, because few researchers test the identity or purity of already established cell lines. Rather than focus on how to resolve the problem of HeLa cell contamination, many scientists and science writers continue to document this problem as simply a contamination issue – caused not by human error or shortcomings but by the hardiness, proliferation, or overpowering nature of HeLa cells.

the chromosomal incompatibility of HeLa cells with human cells;

HeLa cells were the subject of a 2010 book by Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, investigating the historical context of the cell line and how the Lacks family was involved in its use.

"Immortality, In Vitro: A History of the HeLa Cell Line".

Quick Facts

• There are many strains of HeLa cells, because they mutate during division in cell cultures, but all HeLa cells are descended from the same tumor cells removed from Lacks.
• The line is derived from cervical cancer cells taken on February 8, 1951, from Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old African-American woman, after whom the line is named.
• HeLa cells are durable and prolific, allowing for extensive applications in scientific study.
• The total number of HeLa cells that have been propagated in cell culture far exceeds the total number of cells that were in Henrietta Lacks's body.
• Previously, cells cultured from other human cells would survive for only a few days, but cells from Lacks's tumor behaved differently.

Source material: Wikipedia - "HeLa". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.