The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks

Technocrat

The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks

Technocrat.net Editor

Tue Mar 28 14:25:51 -0800 2006

Health+and+Medicine.

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I don't know where I heard of her first: a woman whose cells are bred in culture dishes in labs all over the world; a woman whose cells were so prolific that there is more of her now, in terms of biomass, then there ever was when she was alive. - London Review of Books
"It was Henrietta Lacks's cells that embraced the polio virus, She made it possible to grow the virus so the vaccine could be developed." - Johns Hopkins Magazine
Some people make the unusual claim that Lacks' cancer cells, which are capable of surviving outside cell cultures and contaminating laboratory benches, have "evolved" into a simple, self-replicating, single-cellular life-form. Some researchers have argued that these cells be recognised as a separate species. - Wikipedia
Neither Henrietta nor the Lacks family gave permission for her cells to be used for research; in fact, the family didn't learn about the proliferation of HeLa cells until the early 1970s. The Lacks family - still poor and struggling to access health care - has not been compensated for the use of Henrietta's cells. - Harvard Gazette

Horizontal gene transfer from human papillomavirus 18 (HPV18) to human cervical cells created the HeLa genome which is different from either parent genome in various ways including its number of chromosomes. HeLa cells have a modal chromosome number of 82, with 4 copies of chromosome 12 and 3 copies of chromosomes 6, 8, and 17. - Wikipedia
O God, I can't believe all this is my mother! - NY Times.

The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks

Sam Lander

Wed Mar 29 01:16:48 -0800 2006
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You should know that Mal Webb (a geeks' musician par excellence - like Kate Bush, he has a pi song!) wrote a song about these remarkable cells.
Also worth knowing is the backstory - the cells are called 'hela' cells, and their origin was hidden from the patient and her relatives by a change of name to 'Helen Lane'. In these days of biological patents and copyright, the Henrietta Lacks story makes great reading.

here are Mal's words:

v Helen Lane
(for dad)
Well I propose a toast to the mitosist
With the mostest
She's a ghost who can boast
From coast to coast in every Hela cell
She's more cultured than Chanel
Cartier or YSL
But she's tired of being quite so huge
And dizzy from the centrifuge
She's quick frozen, colour-fast
Her prison cell is built to last

Dear Helen Lane
Did you know your coffin's final nail
Is bigger than a blue whale?
And so it will remain
Just as long as cell biologists
Like peering at your private bits

It's a grand humiliation
Showing now across the nation
Mutation on a huge scale
Bigger than a blue whale

Dear Helen Lane
Did you know the bit you left behind
May help to cure its own kind?
So maybe you can claim
A saintly little perch in every church
For contributions to research

Well back in 1953, m'lady had a malady
A cervix abnormality
That led to her fatality
The cells went for a biopsy
That showed up the malignancy
But also a propensity
To multiply so rapidly
That the scientists went on to see
What other uses there could be
For her expansive quality
They shared her around extensively
To every good laboratory
Her fame was spreading globally
'Til nowadays she's said to be
The biggest lonely clone there'll ever be

Arabidopsis and drosophila
May have advice to offer her
On how it's best to keep your cool
When you've become a research tool

Dear Helen Lane
Did you know your flock of little vultures
Divide and conquer lesser cultures?
But not that you're to blame
Your name before
They diddled with the facts
Was really Henrietta Lacks

Dear Helen Lane
Did you know that part you left to science
Is now a giant among giants?
And on a higher plane
Your omnipresent question
Bids the answer
God's a black woman's cancer

HeLa

sudogeek

Wed Mar 29 11:16:09 -0800 2006
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As noted, there remarkably duarble cells are hardly human anymore - if chromosome number is any indicator. They can survive unbelievable radiation exposures, drying completely out (as I have done one weekend when I went away to the beach), and contaminating any cell culture in sight. I have the distinction of being one of those post-docs who had a black thumb - I could kill even HeLa cells when I was learning cell culture techniques.

Nevertheless, the NYTimes article contains an embedded assumption, that it is somehow deserved or required that Mrs. Lacks' family should be compensated for their mother's cells. Neither Mrs. Lack nor her progeny actually contributed to the development of the cell line. It was a transformed neoplastic cell, used by a researcher who had the skills and lab to support this nevel technique, without which Mrs. Lack would be so much dust. The idea that they have some monetary claim on these cells and the results of their use is just absurd.