This is one of the greatest discoveries in medicine and it astonishes me that not everyone knows about this amazing story.

The first time I ever heard about this was through my daughter, she studies medicine and rambled excitedly for a while about the so called mystery of nature, but since I was busy at the time I didn’t pay that much attention. However, some months later my wife and I watched a movie about the subject based on a book of the same name, it starred Oprah as one of the main characters, after it catched my interest I decided to begin my research through the internet.

Henrietta Lacks was an african american woman that was diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was only 30 years old at the John Hopkins hospital. She died that very same year, 1951.

The 50s was an era in which scientists were battling against many diseases, but what made them unable to move forward in their research was that human cells couldn’t survive in a lab for too long and thus they didn’t have anything to experiment on besides animal cells. In desperate need of a miracle, the goverment allowed the hospitals to harvest tissue samples of the patients without their consent (in other words, they would do the biopsy and keep some tissues for research purposes). Of course Henrietta, suffering from cancer, was the perfect subject.

George Otto Gey, the fist researcher to harvest Henrrieta’s cells, made an amazing discovery… Henrietta Lack’s cancerous cells didn’t die as the many others, they continued reproducing themselves at a high rate and thus could be kept alive long enough to be experimented on, he called them HeLa cells.

Of course HeLa cells were groundbreaking and had an enormous impact on modern medicine.

HeLa cells were used to create the polio vaccine.

At the time this was a common disease that took many lives. Jonas Salk, the man who created this vaccine, needed cells that were susceptible to the infection caused by the poliovirus but that wouldn’t be killed by it… HeLa cells were the only ones that had these characteristics, they were perfect for testing.

HeLa cells were the first human cells to be succesfully cloned.

In 1950 by Theodore Puck and Philip I Marcus at the University of Colorado.

Mapping the human genome.

After combining the HeLa cells with those of a mouse researchers linked gene function to specific chromosomes, setting the stage for the mapping of the human genome.

Vaccine against papillomavirus and cervical cancer.

Harald zur Hausen found that HeLa cells contained multiple copies of human papillomavirus 18 (HPV-18), virus that causes cells to start dividing and growing out of control and thus increases the risk of cervical cancer.)

These are just a few of the many achivements that could be done only by the use of these peculiar cells. They are being used in all kind of researchs all over the world.

Why don't HeLa cells die?

Most cells lack an enzyme called telomerase. Usually when cells divide their chromosomes get shorter and shorter until they stop working and thus die. The ending string of the chromosome is called a telomere, this is the fragment that gets progressively shorter since enzymes during the replication process of DNA can't reach till the very end. The telomerase helps elongate the telomeres all over again, preventing them getting shorter with each division and DNA replication.

Since HeLa cells are cancerous they proliferate (divide) quickly, and having this telomerase their chromosomes stay long with each division, making them able to divide forever as long as they are in an adequate environment.

I find them amazing and fascinating, in a way, Henrietta Lacks will keep living forever with her immortal cells.

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Sources:
https://es.khanacademy.org/science/biology/dna-as-the-genetic-material/dna-replication/a/telomeres-telomerase
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-HeLa-cells-immortal
http://listverse.com/2016/04/09/10-amazing-facts-about-the-immortal-cells-of-henrietta-lacks/
https://www.statnews.com/2017/04/14/henrietta-lacks-hela-cells-science/
http://www.oprah.com/inspiration/uses-of-hela-cells-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/infections-hpv-and-cancer/hpv-and-cancer
Image sources:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/10/18/national/science-health/suicidal-cells-ever-living-woman/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immortal_Life_of_Henrietta_Lacks_(film)
http://www.mitearrest.com/press.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/07/health/henrietta-lacks-genetic-destiny/index.html