

Woman with Immortal Cells - srean
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/05/there-was-once-a-woman-who-had-immortal-cells/

======
djacobs

      Henrietta’s immortal cells weren’t just important in 
      aiding in finding cures for diseases and the like, 
      they also ended up indirectly causing major reform in 
      how scientists worked with cell cultures, in terms 
      of making sure that samples weren’t contaminated.
    

This is a huge problem in cell biology, especially when the cell studies
you're doing are leading up to human trials.

Once you've got HeLa cells in your cell culture, they're nearly impossible to
re-separate. (And HeLa cells are hardier than most, so you can't just kill
them.) If you discover that contamination after you've published and sent your
cells away for archival, it's really hard to undo that set of mistakes.

In fact, I've tried to order not one, but two cell lines in the past year--
based on well-cited publications, mind you--only to get a "contamination
letter". (The cell line you want is contaminated. You can still order it, but
you'll need to sign this waiver first.)

For a sense of how big this problem is, here are known (often published)
examples:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contaminated_cell_lines>

~~~
alecco
Adam Curtis made a very interesting film on this.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2010/06/the_undead_hen...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2010/06/the_undead_henrietta_lacks_and.html)

------
roadnottaken
This article is pretty inaccurate with respect to the uniqueness of this
phenomenon: _"What’s unique about her cells is that, not only do they never
die, in contrast to normal human cells which will die after a few
replications, but her cells can also live and replicate just fine outside of
the human body, which is also unique among humans"_

Most cells derived from tumors can be "cultured" like this, indefinitely.
That's what makes cancer cells cancerous. There are literally thousands of
"cell-lines" in regular use by cell-biologists all over the world. HeLa cells
are robust and ubiquitous, but definitely not unique. In fact, one can order
nearly 1000 such cell-lines from the 'American Type Culture Collection'
(ATCC):

<http://www.atcc.org/Portals/1/TumorLines.pdf>

see also: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_line#List_of_cell_lines>

~~~
krakensden
Wasn't there a big up a few years ago, where they found that a bunch of cell
lines had been contaminated with HeLa?

~~~
roadnottaken
Yes, there was. You can read about the issue (and a potential solution) here:

<http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100602/full/465537a.html>

This happens because HeLa cells are very hardy, robust growers and they're
found in most tissue-culture labs. So if you get even a single HeLa cell in
your culture, they'll eventually proliferate and take-over the cells you
thought you had. Regardless, there are still many, many other legit cell-
lines.

------
araneae
It's terribly sad this is on "Today I found out." I learned about HeLa cells
in high school biology, and the story really stuck with me. But when I took
_The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks_ out of the library (published this
year, and an incredible book up for many awards) my public health faculty SO
had never heard of her or the cells.

The contribution of HeLa cells to modern biology is simply unfathomable. They
were the first cells to be cultured and the only ones that could be for many
years. If it weren't for them, modern biology would have been pushed back
many, many years. Every person who has ever been through public schooling
should know her name. Which is why I was so happy Skoot wrote this book,
because now more people do.

------
lkrubner
Although this article makes for some interesting reading, it is also
misleading. This really needs to be re-written:

"Today I found out there was once a woman who had immortal cells."

That is misleading in the extreme. Biologists generally refer to cancer cells
as "immortal". Healthy cells will limit their own growth, and one theory is
that the length of the telomeres at the end of the chromosomes plays an
important role in limiting that growth. Cancer cells use high levels of the
enzyme telomerase to regrow their telomeres, and thus the cells become
"immortal". I am putting quote marks around the word "immortal" because it is
important to be aware of what biologists mean when they use the word. The
usage should be carefully qualified.

Anyone with cancer can be said to have "immortal" cells. Of any woman with
cancer you could write: "I found out there was once a woman who had immortal
cells."

Henrietta Lacks cells are important not because they are unique but because
they are ordinary. They are ordinary cancer cells, and therefore they give
insight cancer, and to several other disease processes.

~~~
djacobs
I think the title is a pun.

The cells, as cancer, are immortal. But they will also be immortal for much
longer than a typical patient's cancer cells because her particular cells have
been commandeered for research.

~~~
lkrubner
I was complaining about this sentence, which uses the past tense and which
sounds like it is about a specific individual:

"Today I found out there was once a woman who had immortal cells."

------
JeffJenkins
If anyone is interested, this is an excellent book on her life and what
happened: [http://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-
Lacks/dp/14000...](http://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-
Lacks/dp/1400052173/)

~~~
bbgm
Second the book recommendation. A must read for anyone interested in this
story

------
xd
I would have thought lawyers would be all over getting this family' cut, even
without being paid up front.

In the UK we are flooded with no-win no-fee lawyers.

How come this hasn't happened?

~~~
araneae
The exact reason for this is actually very well detailed in _The Immortal Life
of Henrietta Lacks,_ which was published this year.

For one, one man did, but he was a con artist that made the family hesitant to
ever talk to anyone again. When Rebecca Skoot went to interview the family for
the book, they accused her of being his crony. It took her 10 years to write
this book, partly because it took that long for them to open up to her.

The other half of the reason is that lawyers _have,_ and they've gotten
nowhere. There's actually a rather long legal precedent in the U.S. that the
tissue taken from a person in the course of a medical treatment doesn't belong
to them. It is considered medical waste, and part of the argument is that
restricting its usage would hurt medical progress. This is why it is perfectly
legal for hospitals to sell the foreskin of circumcised infants to
pharmaceutical companies, for instance.

------
berberich
Radiolab did a great segment on Henrietta Lacks earlier this year too:
<http://www.radiolab.org/2010/may/17/henriettas-tumor/>

------
sandipc
more on the story of Henrietta Lacks:
<http://www.jhu.edu/jhumag/0400web/01.html>

and the ethics of taking her cells without her consent:
[http://magazine.jhu.edu/2010/06/immortal-cells-enduring-
issu...](http://magazine.jhu.edu/2010/06/immortal-cells-enduring-issues/)

~~~
shinkansen
It struck me that that her cells were taken without her consent and that she
and her family seemingly did not benefit. I'm not sure how profit-sharing
would work in a situation like this or even how much money has actually been
made due directly to the sale of her cells. However it's depressing to read
that her family isn't able to benefit financially while others may be.
Although it's a great contribution to research the ethics seem to be
questionable. At least some of any money made should be in part awarded to her
family and children.

------
udp
That's incredible. I wonder if you could say she's technically still alive,
then, if cells with her DNA are still living?

~~~
gus_massa
These cells don’t have exactly the same DNA that she had. These are tumor
cells, so the have some modifications. In particular, the cells have 82
chromosomes instead of 46 as usual in human cells.

Some people think that these cells are a new specie, a specie that lives in
laboratories. These cells go from culture plates to culture plates at the
minimal distraction. If someday the scientific want to erase all of them, it
will be very difficult because a lot of other "cell cultures" are really HeLa.
There are some examples of "transmissible cancer" that does something similar
in the wild, in animals instead of culture plates. The cells in these tumors
are more related to the cells in other tumors of the some kind, that to the
cell in the actual animal host. Examples:

* Tasmanian Devil: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease>

* Dogs: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canine_transmissible_venereal_t...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canine_transmissible_venereal_tumor)

~~~
tocomment
Why do the cells have more chromosomes? How can they be useful if they're so
different from normal human cells?

~~~
gus_massa
Usually (always?) tumor cell are not only immortal, they also have problems
with the chromosome copy process. The extra chromosomes are copies of the
normal chromosomes. The number varies in every cell line to cell line.

So these cells are different, but most of their molecules are exactly like the
molecules of a normal person. So they are useful to study _most_ of the
properties of humans cells.

------
bherms
The book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks just came out recently. Amazon
picked it as their book of the year. My girlfriend, a bio-molecular & chemical
engineer, just read it and said it was fantastic.

[http://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-
Lacks/dp/14000...](http://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-
Lacks/dp/1400052173/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293640123&sr=8-1)

------
pdx
Random thought from a non-medical type.

It's interesting to me that she had cancer when they harvested the cells,
given the non-mainstream theory that cancer is just the body's healing
process, run amok. I find the thought that it's the cancer that enabled her
cells to reproduce so well, intriguing.

If you're interested in that theory of cancer, here's a TED talk.
[http://www.ted.com/talks/eva_vertes_looks_to_the_future_of_m...](http://www.ted.com/talks/eva_vertes_looks_to_the_future_of_medicine.html)

~~~
PaulJoslin
Cancer is one of the biggest concerns over extending telomeres length and
prolonging 'life'.

If you create cells which will replicate forever and avoid the problems of
aging, it may also replicate any mutations which could turn into cancer.

~~~
rbanffy
This may create an evolutionary pressure that selects those without the
mutations.

Well... The descendants of some of us may become immortal one day.

~~~
djacobs
Unfortunately, evolutionary pressure can't act on a) mutations caused by
(foreign) viruses or b) hereditary mutations only expressed late in life,
after child-bearing years. Once we've had our children and raised them to be
independent, evolution doesn't really care what happens to us and there is
little selective pressure to prevent cancer-causing mutations.

There are exceptions to this, but they are few.

~~~
rbanffy
Social behavior and the role of grandparents has created some evolutionary
pressure towards longevity beyond childbearing age.

Also, keep in mind immortal humans may want to bear children at ages much
later than current ones can. For instance, it would be helpful if you could
bear children at 30 year intervals so you could be sure you raised your kids
right (or try a different approach if you didn't)

~~~
djacobs
I'm no expert about this topic (effects of society on evolution), but it seems
to me like after a certain age, there are diminishing returns from having
grandparents. One critical point might be when you get a stable job. After
that, the role of grandparents probably can't compete with other selective
pressures to keep those grandparents cancer-free. Right?

As to having children later in life, that could certainly help the situation,
but only if we all agree to do that. If there is some genetic factor that
determines when a person wants to have kids, then people who want to have kids
earlier will likely win out.

------
10smom
think this family needs a good lawyer. They should be getting a portion of all
proceeds that have come as a result of use of her cells! I bet lawyers are
banging on their door this minute.

------
aerique
So are more instances of people with cells like these known? Considering the
circumstances of the discovery I find that hard to believe. Otherwise we have
been very, very lucky as a species.

~~~
roadnottaken
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2049650>

------
Shorel
My sister is both a bacteriologist and a doctor.

She knows about HeLa cells, but she has forgotten who Henrietta Lacks was (she
only heard the name once or twice in class).

------
chanux
In comments

 _It’s rather horrible that her family still lives in poverty to this day
though._

It's how the world works.

~~~
fatherlinux
Yeah, I guess that is why Malcom X hated white people

------
Charuru
The science is very interesting. But reading about the social effects of
slavery still freaks me out.

white Lacks and black Lacks? *shudders.

