HE WAS PRIVATELY EXTRACTED FROM THE ORGANIZATION BY A DOCTOR, AND EVERYONE RESEARCHED AND PUBLISHED 60,000 PAPERS, AND WAS COMPENSATED AT THE END OF 70 YEARS.

Sometimes, sometimes, I believe that everything has an end. Leave together, when there waiting, nothing will last forever.

Lin Xi, who wrote the lyrics in "Red Bean", probably didn't know the HeLa cell line at the time.

This cell line with no end of life (infinite division) has established and promoted the progress of modern cancer, genetics, virology and space microbiology with its own efforts. Probably nothing is more immortal than it.

An unintentional move creates an immortal cell line

In 1951, in the Johns Hopkins Hospital, a black woman named Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Dr. George Otto Gey, a Johns Hopkins researcher, took a biopsy sample from her cervix in accordance with the usual procedures for clinical evaluation and research.

Dr. George Otto Gey

(Image source: Johns Hopkins Hospital website)

Gey's experimental assistant Mary Kubicek cultured the biopsy tissue to observe the growth of the cells. As usual, Mary took the first two letters of the patient's name and surname to form the sample's name "HeLa" and marked it on the cell culture flask.

Normally, cells in tissue culture will die quickly, but HeLa cells will replicate every 20-24 hours without any symptoms of life decay.

Henrietta Lacks's posthumous photo. Since her death, more than 50 million tons of cells from the HeLa cell line have been used worldwide. (Youtube video screenshot)

Soon after, Ms. Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer.

However, Dr. Gey did not destroy the HeLa cells. He seemed to have to see how many generations of HeLa cells would be reproduced before they would die. This decision subsequently led to the birth of the HeLa cell line, the first human cell line.

In 1953, Gey's laboratory published a paper introducing the HeLa cell line in the "Journal of Experimental Medicine". After that, researchers from all over the world in related fields asked Gey about the HeLa cell line. Gey sent them free of charge.

But all this, Ms. Henrietta Lacks and her relatives and friends did not know before her life.

At that time, there were no regulations requiring researchers to inform patients that their tissue samples were taken for experiments. Secondly, no one thought that the HeLa cell line would divide continuously. Most importantly, Gey Lab has not used the HeLa cell line for any commercial activities.

A storm caused by a cell line

At the same time as this amazing discovery, there are countless sad stories.

Although the HeLa cell line has brought tremendous research value and economic value over the years, the family members of Ms. Henrietta Lacks still cannot afford to go to the hospital.

According to an article in Cell in 2010, this small group of cervical cancer cells has been replicated into a HeLa cell line with a total weight of more than 50 million tons, helping researchers around the world to publish at least 60,000 papers.

Source: Cell

In 1981, the California Supreme Court passed a bill that any tissue samples left after a patient's death are no longer the patient's inheritance and can be commercialized. Patients and their families have the right to know the use of tissue samples.

This bill may make many researchers no longer have any psychological burden when using HeLa cell lines, but for many scientists, the academic community still owes Ms. Henrietta Lacks and her family.

Because academia is not just as simple as using HeLa cell lines.

The family members of Henrietta Lacks gather next to the Hella Memorial, which is located in Virginia.

（图源：LACKS FAMLILY）

In the early 1970s, in order to find out why the HeLa cell line splits for a long time, researchers found the family of Ms. Henrietta Lacks and collected their blood samples for genetic analysis.

In 1974, Henrietta Lacks’s daughter Deborah Lacks asked a researcher about the HeLa cell line. The researcher signed her name on a medical textbook, gave it to Deborah Lacks and told her that she The answer is in this densely packed text.

Maybe she only knew then that her mother's cells were used in scientific research on a large scale. But until the death of Deborah Lacks in 2009, their family still did not get an appropriate answer from the academic community.

Time flies to 2013. With the development of next-generation genome sequencing and analysis technologies, scientists want to use genome sequencing to find out why the HeLa cell line has not stopped dividing.

However, since the HeLa cell line carries the genetic information of Ms. Henrietta Lacks and her family, the publication of genomic data requires the consent of her family members.

As the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Francis Collins began to feel the need to take this opportunity to make up for the contempt for the Henrietta family over the past few decades. He personally contacted the members of the Henrietta family and introduced and explained HeLa over the past few years. Cell line research, and the use of genomic data, etc.

In the end, the Henrietta family agreed to release the genome information of the HeLa cell line.

This is also the first time in the past few decades that the academia sat down with the Henrietta family to seriously discuss the HeLa cell line face-to-face.

Source: Nature

The storm is over, the story continues

In Pubmed, NIH's citation search tool, there are more than 110,000 studies involving HeLa cell lines. Before 2013, NIH included more than 1,300 GB of HeLa genome data contributed by researchers around the world.

No one can stop the generation of more data and the continuation of more research, neither the Henrietta family nor the NIH.

Even if the Henrietta family is to be compensated, there is no individual or subject in the academia. After all, within the scope of the existing law, even the government is not obliged to have any responsibilities or obligations.

Pubmed search results

On the other hand, a bigger problem involved in the HeLa cell line is the cognitive gap between the scientific community and ordinary people and the issue of equal rights.

The scientific community needs HeLa cell lines and many similar studies to promote the development of science. Not only the scientific community, but all mankind needs the advancement of science and technology to eliminate diseases.

Try to think about it, if in 1951, Henrietta Lacks himself or his family refused to continue research by researchers, what would it be like now?

But does this mean that patients should contribute to medicine for free? There is no answer.

Especially now, everyone's genome data is comparable to everyone's fingerprint, and it involves more private information than fingerprints.

In view of the great impact of the HeLa cell line problem, if it cannot be solved properly, it can be foreseen that many people will not be willing to participate in medical research in the future. It will be a great loss to the scientific community and the progress of mankind.

This embarrassment continued until October 29, 2020, when the problem finally turned around.

The second largest private biomedical research organization in the United States, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced that it will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation to the Henrietta Lacks family.

Source: Nature

At the same time, some laboratories from the University of Cambridge and the University of California, San Francisco will also hold fund-raising activities and plan to donate the money collected to the Henrietta family.

Although a series of problems caused by the HeLa cell line have not been solved perfectly, these warm and equal humanistic care must be promoting the progress of science and human society.

I hope that this little bit of warmth can continue and benefit more people. After all, scientific progress is also to benefit more people. (Planning: Ivan, gyouza)

Title image source: youtube video screenshot

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