.png)
Loretta Pleasant, an African American woman, was born in 1920 and died 31 years later a victim of cervical cancer, leaving 5 kids.
Fig 1. Loretta Pleasant or Henrietta Lacks
While being treated at Johns Hopkins hospital her tumor was biopsied and this very important point led to the immortalization of this woman.
After the biopsy was performed on Lorreta cells, George Otto Gey (in this picture) cultured them discovering that these cells have the capacity to multiplicate and grow outside the body, being the cell line known as HeLa created. This was the first immortalized cell line ever made, being a crucial step in modern science.
HeLa stands for Henrietta Lacks the name adopted somewhere along Loretta's life. The fantastic achievement of culturing cells that survive outside the body came from an involuntary donor that had no scientific knowledge of what was happening.
The truth is that Lorreta or Henrietta if you prefer, has been a central figure in vaccine development such as poliomyelitis and HPV vaccines.
Currently, these cells are used in cancer studies giving amazing insights into the cell's response to radiation, chemotherapy, and even molecular changes they undergo to survive and grow.
Multiphoton fluorescence image of HeLa cells stained with the actin binding toxin phalloidin (red), microtubules (cyan) and cell nuclei (blue). NIH-funded work at the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research. Credit: Tom Deerinck
Did you know?
HeLa cells were used to define cancer markers and to establish an identification system of specific cancer cells through RNA.
References
Dr. Francis Collins. (2013, August 7). August 7, 2013 – NIH Director’s Blog. NIH Director’s Blog. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2013/08/07/
Starkman, E. (2022, January 28). What Are HeLa Cells? WebMD; WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/cancer/cervical-cancer/hela-cells-cervical-cancer
to, C. (2006, March 10). American cell biologist (1899–1970). Wikipedia.org; Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Otto_Gey#/media/File%3AGeorge_Gey.jpg
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Comentarios