HeLa Cells and the Cold War

We're back with HeLa cells! There's so much to say here, I could go on a whole week.

For all the good they did to science, HeLa cells also brought their share of problems. Their incredible ability to grow and divide made them aggressive invaders of other cell lines. Because they were sent to laboratories all over the world (since, you know, you could discovery so much with them), HeLa cells were given an opportunity to contaminate nearly all laboratories cell cultures.

At the time, cell lines were at their beginnings, and identifying contaminations wasn't an easy task. Growing cells had been so hard until HeLa that no one really expected it to happen.*

They found, however, that normal cell lines seemed to become malignant cells. At the time, the growing belief was that there was a cancer virus, which could be isolated and defeated.

Fast-forward to the Cold War. The US and the URSS are at odds with each other (to say the least). They are competing in nearly every science field.

Just when the Americans began to doubt the cancer virus theory (they found an alarming number of top security laboratories with HeLa contaminations and wondered if the cells "becoming malignant" weren't simply all HeLa cells that had contaminated), the Soviets claimed they'd found it. In five different cell lines, no less.

The US' research on cancer was, otherwise, more advanced. The two countries decided to collaborate.

The URSS sent the five cell lines with the cancer virus to the US scientists. They proceeded to verify all the information give by soviet scientists -- and in that process, they sent the cells to Walter Nelson-Rees, the cell biologist who'd tracked down HeLa contaminations across the country.

What did they find? HeLa cells, of course. Contaminated with a monkey virus, which is what led the soviets to believe they'd found the cancer virus.

It didn't go over well.

Both sides were upset, suspicions were raised, but thankfully they downplayed the incident as much as possible rather than calling it foul play. This was one of the final blow to the cancer virus theory.

Thus did HeLa participate in the Cold War, despite dying decades earlier.

If HeLa cells got you half as fascinated as I am, I recommend you check out a one-hour documentary on them, The Way of the Flesh. It's available for free on Top Documentary Films, right here. The image quality isn't top, but to be honest, you don't need images to get engrossed in the power of HeLa cells, who will most likely outlive us all.

*Funny aside here: one of the way they could tell the difference between HeLa and other was that HeLa cells had enzymes unique to black people, and nearly all other cell lines came from white subjects. Many scientists had cell lines from themselves, in fact. One had a line derived from his daughter (I find that creepy, for the record), and he called his wife to know if she had a black lover. They were that convinced they hadn't contaminated their cell lines.

Henrietta Lacks' Immortal Cells

"Here lies Henrietta Lacks (HeLa). Her immortal cells will continue to help mankind forever. Eternal Love and Admiration, From Your Family"

-- Henrietta Lacks Epiteth

I'm bending the rules already, as our next stop with women of importance in science isn't a scientist. She did, however, bring more to science than the vast majority of those who claim the title, including the big names of any field.

Henrietta Lacks was a thirty-one-year-old black woman with a cervical cancer when her science-related story begins. It was in February 1951 and she visited the John Hopkins Hospital in order to receive treatment. They did a biopsy, which allowed the cancer diagnosis, but which also led to one of the biggest scientific discovery of all times.

Unlike normal cells, which die after a few life cycles, Henrietta Lacks' cells were immortal.

Eight days after the initial biopsy, Dr. George Otto Gey returned to remove a second sample of cells from the tumor. No one told Lacks what they were doing, or asked for her consent.

This is where it gets a ethically gray. The Supreme Court later declared that he did not have to, as "discarded tissues" are no longer considered someone's property. One would argue, however, that when you have discovered cells with properties that will revolution the way science is done, you should at least inform their previous owner or her family.

That being said, I'm not convinced Dr. Gey did this with any malice. It was in the 50s and she was a black woman about to die of cancer. He was not the doctor treating Lacks, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear he never met her.

At least he knew her name. He called this new immortal cell line the HeLa cells.

What bothers me more is that Henrietta's family did not hear of this until 1976, twenty-five years after her death.

By that time, HeLa cells were used across the globe in nearly every lab, in "research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and countless other scientific pursuits." It was the cell line used by Jonas Salk to test the first polio vaccine in the 1950s (now called the "Salk vaccine", for the record).  There are over 11,000 patents that concern HeLa cells, and in 2009, more than 60,000 scientific articles about research done using the HeLa cells had been published.

What's so special about the HeLa cells?

I said that they are immortal, which might not mean much to most of you. What has to be understood is that before the HeLa cells, scientists spent more time trying to keep cells alive than doing research on them.

The HeLa cells aren't only immortal. They grow fast (they are cancer cells, after all) and easily. In fact, their growth rate and adaptation abilities has become a problem, as HeLa cells have this bad tendency to contaminate the other lines. They are the weed of our labs.

The truth is, HeLa cells' propensity to contaminate almost led to an important Cold War incident.

But that, my friends, is a post for Friday. Tune back in!

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Thanks to TL Conway for suggesting this topic! I'd heard the story before but had forgotten to put it on the list. Mistake corrected!

Since we're on a cell-related topic, don't forget this is your last chance to participate in the Transfection contest! Follow the link, tell us what your biggest science creep is, and you could win a free copy of the David's old school science-fiction short story!