This cancer cell has been nurtured for 70 years, the volume alone is more than 50 million tons

Thanks to the ability to "eternal immortality", it has made countless contributions to science, saving billions of people on Earth.

Many cancer cells are very active in the host and can continue to divide and multiply to cause untold damage. But after leaving the body, no matter how strong they used to be, they would no longer be able to divide too many times. And usually after no more than 50 generations, they will have to go through what is called apoptosis - or the process of "programmed death". It is the biochemical events that lead to characteristic changes in the morphology of the cell and lead to the death of that cell.

Leaving the body, the death of the cells seems to be predestined.

But there are some cells, called immortal cell lines, that can be grown in a test tube for a long time. Some of them come from cancer cells.

With the advancement of technology, humans have now mastered the way of artificial intervention and the creation of immortal cell lines. But before, they could only search for immortal cells formed by natural mutations.

The first immortal cell line discovered by scientists was HeLa cells, discovered in 1951. And more than 70 years since that time, HeLa cells are still being cultured to this day.

HeLa cells are being cultured.

What do HeLa cells look like?

Although HeLa cells can indeed divide and multiply continuously, they are not kept in one place, nor are they maintained continuously, on the contrary, they are divided into innumerable parts and emerge. present in various laboratories around the world. And each of these parts will be destroyed when used up.

This is because HeLa cell is an immortal cell line from the human body, so many human studies will use it for experiments to get the most realistic data. For example, vaccines, drugs and even cleansers or sunscreens will use HeLa cells. It is also used in gene mapping and Covid-19 vaccine development.

HeLa cells can be replicated indefinitely.

A few years after the discovery of HeLa cells, a HeLa cell factory was established, whose purpose was to culture these cells and sell them to other laboratories. The plant is believed to be able to produce 60 trillion live HeLa cells per week.

Data from 2011 show that the total volume of HeLa cells grown (including destroyed) at that time was at least 50 million tons.

If you don't find this number scary, know that if you continue to support and let this cell divide, it is estimated that the entire Earth will not be able to contain all HeLa cells in 80 years. again.

Because HeLa cells divide very quickly every 20-24 hours, and will not die like other cells. That is, in less than a day, all of them were able to double in weight.

These properties make it unique and different, since before the HeLa cell it was very difficult to find an immortal cell from the human body.

How are HeLa cells born?

The HeLa cells came from the cervical cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman. In 1951, the mother of five young children visited Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Due to severe racial segregation at the time, Johns Hopkins hospital was one of the few places that dared to accept and treat black people.

Henrietta Lacks

Lacks, initially unaware she had cervical cancer, described the pain in her groin to doctors and said the disease had hindered her work.

At the time, her treating physician knew it was a malignancy after a few simple observations. A sample of her cancer cells was taken under the circumstances and sent to Dr. George Gey's nearby tissue lab.

This group of cancer cell samples are the first HeLa cells, which can be cultured countless times. In fact, before HeLa cells appeared, Dr. Gey and his team had been searching for human cells that could be grown in vitro for years without success.

The discovery of HeLa cells is undoubtedly a major breakthrough in human medicine, because researchers can perform many experiments with them, and then find a cure for diseases in children. People.

In fact, HeLa cells are like "guinea pigs" in the lab, and they can be cultured at very low cost. Most importantly, they can persist in many experiments, especially comparison experiments, giving researchers more time and space to explore the problem.

HeLa cells have just been divided.

Because HeLa cells are so excellent, to date more than 65,000 scientific papers have been completed with its support, as well as nearly 11,000 patents related to them. In the 21st century alone, there have been 5 medical Nobel prizes directly related to this immortal cell.

And in two studies involving the development of polio and HPV vaccines alone, HeLa cells have saved billions of lives.

However, HeLa cells are not perfect and they also have many flaws.

Disadvantages of HeLa cells?

The HeLa cell is essentially a "mutant" cervical cancer cell, because Lacks was infected with the HPV virus after cervical cancer. That is, Lacks' cancer cells were infected with the HPV virus and changed their basic structure.

That leaves her cancer cells with between 76 and 80 chromosomes, while human cells are known to have only 46. And those extra chromosomes are the result of a viral infection.

Therefore, HeLa cells are not really human cells. This is one of its shortcomings, which makes it impossible to use as a real human cell.

Chromosome differences between HeLa cells and human cells

The second disadvantage of HeLa cells is that it can "contaminate" other cell lines. This is the most serious drawback of HeLa cells, because during culture they will secrete some chemicals that contaminate other cell lines, causing many laboratories to ban the use of HeLa cells.

This feature of HeLa cells somewhat resembles the process by which one species suppresses another in order to survive, so some have now suggested that HeLa cells should be treated as an independent species.

However, it is the same mutation mentioned above that gives HeLa cells the ability to "immortal immortality".

Normally, during cell division, telomeres (repeated strands of DNA at the ends of chromosomes) are gradually depleted, leaving the cell unable to divide indefinitely. It is one of the fundamental reasons we age.

However, the mutated HeLa cells acquired an enzyme called telomerase, which is activated during cell division and upon telomerase activity rebuilds the telomeres consumed during division, allowing cells to proliferate indefinitely.

The End for the Descendants of Henrietta Lacks

With the advancement of medicine, the ability and contribution in medicine of HeLa cells is no longer as prominent as before. But no one can deny its contribution to the world.

But going back to the story of Henrietta Lacks, as mentioned, the doctors took the cancer cells but didn't tell her. So, despite contributing to countless scientific works as well as millions of tons of cultured cells, the Lacks family did not receive any benefits and did not even know that HeLa cells could be used. related to them.

Henrietta Lacks herself was buried in an unknown grave after her death.

A life-size statue of Henrietta Lacks, to be unveiled at the University of Bristol in 2021.

It was not until recently, when it was discovered that HeLa cells were infecting other cell lines and their genes needed to be sequenced to find out why, that Henrietta Lacks' descendant was contacted. back for a DNA sample.

In October 2021, the 70th anniversary of her death, the family of Henrietta Lacks filed a federal lawsuit against Thermo Fisher Scientific for unlawful enrichment and unjust use of her cells and tissue samples. grandma.

1. Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins University states on its website that it has "never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells" and that the university does not own the rights to the cells. HeLa.