The first immortal human cell line is HeLa. The cells originated from a sample of Henrietta Lack's cervical carcinoma that was collected in 1951.
What are HeLa cells? How were they discovered?
- Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman in her 30s, was taken to Baltimore's John Hopkins Hospital in 1951 because she had a mass in her abdomen.
- Lacks was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the cervix, an aggressive form of cancer that doctors attempted to cure using radiation-tube implants (Brachytherapy).
- Without her knowledge or agreement, the doctor also removed a portion of her cancer tumor during her treatment for culture research.
- At the age of 31, Henrietta Lacks passed suddenly in October 1951.
- However, unlike the cancer cells from other patients, whose cells immediately died, the expert who analyzed her cancer cells found that they could multiply continually in the lab.
- HeLa cells were dubbed the first "immortal" line of human cells as a result of this.
What is the importance of HeLa cells?
HeLa cells have been employed by researchers all around the world to advance a variety of medical fields:
- Vaccines. Scientists discovered they could multiply the poliovirus in enormous numbers in HeLa cells around the beginning of the 1950s. They were better able to comprehend how the virus affected cells and led to sickness as a result. It paved the path for the creation of the polio vaccine.
- Human papillomavirus, the most prevalent STD, has been linked to cervical cancer, according to research conducted in 1985 using HeLa cells. The finding, which paved the way for the creation of the HPV vaccination, ultimately earned the work's principal investigator a Nobel Prize.
- AIDS and HIV. Researchers found that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has difficulty infecting HeLa cells in the late 1980s. This aided in their understanding of how the infection operates and helped pave the way for the creation of HIV and AIDS drugs.
- Artificial insemination (IVF). By fusing a woman's eggs with a man's sperm in a lab, this fertility therapy aids both couples and single people in getting pregnant. HeLa cell research opened the door for scientists
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