SCIENCE

HENRIETTA LACKS

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who was the progenitor of the HeLa cell line, one of the most important cell line in medical research.

She was the unwitting donor of these cells from a cancerous tumor biopsied during treatment for her cervical cancer at John Hopkins, Maryland. These cells were then cultured by George Otto Gey.

It was the first time a human line had survived outside the body. More than 50 million tonnes of Henrietta’s cells have been grown since she died.

Lacks went to the only hospital in the area that treated black patients, because she felt a “knot” in her womb, after her last birth she had a severe hemorrhage , she was tested for syphilis which came back negative and was referred to John  Hopkins.

They took a biopsy of the mass on Lack’s cervix for lab testing.

Soon after, she was told that she had malignant epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, which was  a misdiagnosis of adenocarcinoma.

Lacks was treated with radium tube inserts as an in patient and discharged a few days later.

During her treatment ,2 samples were taken from her without permission and sent to a cancer researcher which was Gey.

The researcher observed that her cells were unique in that they could be kept alive long enough to allow more in-depth examination, most cells then only survived for a few days.

He succeeded by using his own cultivation technique .It involved bathing the cells in a fluid of chicken plasma, beef embryo extract and human placental cord serum. The cells were called HeLa cells after the first two letters of her first and last name.

The ability to reproduce HeLa cells has led to great medical breakthrough, most especially on development of drugs for disease like polio, parkison, leukemia.

HeLa cells have also assisted in cancer research, it was discovered that her cells activated an enzyme called telomerase and the cells used to repair damaged DNA, as telomerase is hyperactive in HeLa cells, the telomeres never become depleted. The resulting continuous division has made the cell line vital in cancer research.

HeLa cells aided the progression of genetic research, when a Texas geneticist accidentally spilled chemical on the cells and he noticed that the cells increased in size and untangled themselves making them more visible.2 years later ,Joe Hin Tjio and Albert Levan developed an improved technique that lead to the discovery that normal human cells definitely have only 46 chromosome.

In March 2013, researchers published the DNA sequence of the genome of a strain HeLa cells.

In 2008, German virologist Harald zur Hausen was awarded the Nobel Prize for his milestone discovery that 2 strains of HPV were directly linked to cervical cancer and HeLa cells aided in his discovery.

Neither Lacks nor her family gave her physicians permission to harvest her cells.

The Lacks family discovered this when an author Rebecca Skloot informed them and they had a slight reparation, she documented extensive histories of the story and published it in her 2010 book “The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”. The HeLa case has raised questions about the legality of using genetic materials without permission. .

In 2016 , filming of the adaptation of the movie began, with famous tv show host Oprah winfrey starring in it.

Purple heart

Reference; Wikipedia,Huffigton post