Henrietta Lacksan African American tobacco cultivator died on October 4, 1951 at the age of 31 due to a uterine cervix cancer particularly aggressive, but his cellHela cells, continue to live still today and are used in workshops around the world to conduct experiments. How is it possible? Its cancer cells were taken on the occasion of a biopsy and donated to the laboratory of Dr. George Otto Gey. The researcher discovered that these cells were “immortal“, a condition that led them to be widely used for research reasons, and appointed them Helaa contraction of the woman’s name and surname. All this happened without consent neither henrietta nor his family, opening up ethical issues and important legal, resolved only after 62 years.
The story of Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks, born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia, like Loretta Pleastershe was a tobacco cultivator and mother of 5 children. In January 1951 Henrietta was hospitalized at the John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, a city where she had moved with her family. He was diagnosed with a uterine cervix cancer And he had to undergo in the months following radiotherapy cycles. Unfortunately, given the aggression of the tumor, Henrietta did not reply to the care and on October 4 of the same year he died.
During hospitalization the patient was subjected to a biopsy that allowed the Sampling of tumor tissue samples uterine that were sent to the laboratory of Dr. George Otto Geya cellular biologist, to carry out experiments not related to Henrietta’s medical condition. At the time there were no federal rules regarding the informed consentso the practice was carried out without informing Henrietta herself or her family.
The researcher, with the help of his assistant Mary Kubicekhe noticed that contrary to all the other cell crops that he had previously studied, the cancer cells taken by Henrietta had an unusual capacity of survive and proliferate indefinitely in vitro. Later it was discovered – and it was a discovery from Nobel – that the immortality of these cells, typical of cancer and stem cells, is due to the action of an enzyme that prevents the degradation of genetic information in chromosomes. At the time, however, it was not known of all this and Gey, amazed by this resistance, decided to name this cell line Hela and recognizing their immense scientific potential shared these cells with other research workshops all over the world, marking the birth of the first human cell line immortalized.
Because hela cells are immortal
By studying these particular cells, in the decades following their discovery, the role of the enzyme has been discovered telomerasewhat makes them immortal. THE chromosomesthe structures in which the DNA is compact in the nucleus of cells, have a “hood” of repeated sequences that protect genetic information from degradation, i at their ends telomeri. Every time a cell divides these ends to shorten, and after a number of divisions the telomers become too short by preventing the cell from dividing further and blocking proliferation. The enzyme telomerase in somatic cellsall the cells of the body is active only in the early stages of embryonic development When stem cells are active replication, while its activity decreases with increase in age when cellular activity is reduced. What happens is that Telomerasi comes reactivated in cancer cells like the Hela, allowing them, if they are maintained in the appropriate environment in vitroto have unlimited growth by inhibiting cellular aging processes. Another significant difference compared to human somatic cells, which count 46 chromosomesis that Hela cells have a greater number of chromosomes, approximately 80. This feature is a consequence of the horizontal gene transfer induced by the infection from papilloma virus (HPV), the main responsible for the cancer of the uterine cervix.
The role of Hela cells in scientific research and the advantages of their use
The immortality of Hela cells, still used todayOver the years, it has contributed to their adoption all over the world in biomedical research and has made it possible to better understand the mechanisms of cell aging and some diseases. From 1953 to 2022, according to the NiH data (National Institute of Health) have been published more than 100.ooo articles on searches that used these cells, of which more than 40,000 in the United States.
Henrietta cells have been used in different areas and proved to be fundamental for experiments and discoveries that have contributed to changing the history of medicine:
- Anti-political vaccine: The advent of Hela cells, a continuous cell line, in the 1950s made it possible to make great steps forward in the research for the vaccine of this serious infectious disease against the central nervous system. The ability to replicate itself continuously has allowed researchers to better study how the virus infects cells and causes disease and producing high quantities of viruses for the production of vaccines.
- Studies on radiation and space: Hela cells were used both in one of the first experiments to study the impact of X -rays On cell growth and the consequent negative effects on human health, both transported aboard space capsules to provide the first clues on the impact of space travel on biology.
- Studies on uterine cervix cancer: Hela cells were crucial in establishing the link between the HPV viruses (Papilloma virus) e cancer. Henrietta cells derive from this type of cancer and thanks to their use it has been clarified as the HPV induces cancer cellular transformations. Research that earned the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine to dr. Harald Zur Hausen.
- Aging studies: the discovery of the Telomeri-Camerase system earned, in 2009, the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine to Dr. Elizabeth Blackburnto Dr. Carol Greider and to dr. Jack Szostak.
The ethical and legal implications of the Henrietta Lacks affair
There lacks family He learned of the wide use of henrietta cells about twenty years after his death, in 1973when they were contacted by researchers who wanted to study the genes following contamination of cellular crops in the laboratory. The press revealed in the following years that the fictitious names used in scientific publications hid Henrietta’s true identity and some family members tried to deepen the story, also inquiring about the profits that companies derived from research on Hela cells but were widely ignored for decades. The book “Henrietta Lacks’s immortal life“By Rebecca Skloot published in 2010 he contributed to telling and spreading this incredible story that saw an ethical and legal turning point only in 2013.
The National Institutes of Health (Nih), in fact, has reached a agreement with the Henrietta Lacks family, published on Natureto allow thecontrolled access to the complete genome data of Hela cells by researchers. The agreement was born following the unauthorized publication of the Hela genome by German scientists, who had raised concerns about family privacy regarding the potential dissemination of sensitive information on their genetic disease predispositions. The new policy aims to balance scientific progress with respect for Henrietta and his relatives, while guaranteeing their participation and recognition of the fundamental contribution to science. To date, in addition to the foundation in honor of the African American woman – “The Henrietta Lacks Foundation“, There is also a statue at the Royal Fort House in Bristol who reads”More Than a Cell” -“More than a cell” – To underline the ethical and moral importance of the story.
