Immortal Cells...Who would have known?

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Henrietta-Lacks-Immortal-Cells.html

seems that we, as a people, had more to contribute to modern science other than the 'Tuskegee' experiments after all.



Never read about this in my biology books tho. I mean, I read about polio like anyone else, but I never knew of such involvement from blacks, in one way or another.

 

I read this yesterday and it's amazing that so many medical advances in cellular biology are all due to one person, and even more amazing that it was kept quiet for so long. Having worked in the medical field, I know that sometimes doctors and scientists place more emphasis on the contribution made than they do the person themselves. However, I have to question how much of the secrecy was due to her race. Despite how many lives Henrietta Lacks' cells helped to save, there are still hateful people who would make an issue out of the fact that she was black. In 1951, it would have been an even bigger issue for people like that. Did the anonymity benefit the world at large? Sure it did. Does she deserve recognition for her contributions to science and medicine despite that it wasn't made voluntarily? Absolutely she does.

 

HeLa cells - thats what they are called in the research world (He La as in Henrietta Lacks) are probably in the top 20 imortal cell lines that are used in reserach. I dont know how much research I did on them when I was a scientist.
The humans they originated from was kept a secret for a very long time, where these cell came from were simply not talked about due to privacy issues and they way they were obtained (standard procedure back then) - not really much more to it than that - at least in the research world.
It was simply just tissue that would be thrown away so why not put it to good use... that is how it was back then but clearly not how research is conducted today. What people outside the research world would have thought about cells originating from a black woman was certainly not of any interrest to the reserch world world.

This does not just cover Henrietta Lacks, ther are 100s of similar immortal cell lines obtained in a similar manner. This way of obtaining tissue is long gone though.

Henrietta Lacks - and all the other originators to immortal cell lines that are commonly used in reseach deserves some sort of accolade for sure.

 

I don't know what book you were reading but those cells are talked about in biology classes nation wide. Question is if it can be duplicated by any one person.

 

They took the cells from the tumor and used them.
That's a bit creepy to me to be using cancer cells as healthy cells for research.

 

Its the only way to start drug screening before going into animals and then humans. Animal research is not only VERY expensive, it is also heavily regulated. Its way better to test it on immortal tumor cell lines than testing it with no knowledge on animals.

You have to have a tumor cell environment as a first step to screen drugs. They are not used as "healthy cells" they are used as tumor cells as they exhibit specific mutations etc that are related to specific cancers so that you can test drugs in context of specific cancers.

Now, that some of the original immortal tumor cell lines were taken from "donors" without conect, that was creepy.

 

O.k. using them for drug screening against the cancer, I see that.

but for polio and other diseases that are not cancers, I find it a bit disconcerting and think of the movie "28 Days Later" and a major screw the pooch potential because they are cancer cells.


and yes, it is creepy that they would take the cells without asking.

I think of the novel and movie "Coma".

 

what??
Other diseases have similar research for th every same reason..
I dont get your point.

 

At least in cancer research, there is a line of thinking that
these immortal cells because they are not like real tissue, normal or cancerous, may in fact be providing misleading - or, worse, completey incorrect - information heading scientists in the wrong direction in cancer research.

It has been documented that vaccines have also caused cancers and other diseases not relevant to the disease of which the inoculation is suppose to protect.

That was the whole premise of the movies "I Am Legend", "28 Days" and "28 Days Later. It was a vaccine gone screw the pooch causing the 'rage' and creating a new subhuman species that fed on human flesh.

Yes, the movie took the potential to the extreme.

I do know however there is a camp that warns new moms to be wary of giving their children vaccines because of adverse side effects.

 

Go educate yourself on the subject.

 

put da claws away

seriously




I do know of others who shy away from standard vaccinations, due to the notion that they have the potential, to cause unwanted issues down the line.

Geek works in the industry, so I would take her views as a bit biased.



That's like asking Sylvester Stallone if the next Rambo flick will be good.

 

i must say that i looked heavily into all of that before i put my children in front of the doctor with their needles and syrups...especially the mmr. when i was living in the uk there was a lot of talk about mmr vaccinations and down syndrome. again, research cleared my conscience.

 

yo, ive been watching back-to-back..........TO BACK...episodes of the x-files...

dont make me start trippin on government agencies lying about the effects of vaccines

:smt029

you know the Flu vaccine makes your eyes glow in the dark, right

 

I am an unbiased scientist first and foremost. That is what I am hired for - to be unbiased.

But I think it is very dangerous when people think they know what they are talking about
That is why I said go educate yourself... not giving links, because that would be biased.

Its all on the web and before you talk about stuff like this, you should go read a lot about it and make sure you read it from different sources.
Then, go make your own decissions and not based on what a stranger tells you on a board. This is exactly why you never see me say stuff like this unless I see stuff that needs to be responded to.

 

an unbiased scientist?

that's like a case of the blue bawls

(they're both myths)

 

lol...well that explains the oversized glow worms i thought i was seeing

 

That is just the weirdest thing ever Petty.
The vast majority of Scientists work in Academic centers. And the ones that do work in teh Industry, dont really give a shit about who pays their bills - they just have a passion for something they want to research.

The PhD education grinds it into you to never say anything for certain, its a part of the education because science by definition is vauge as new things are discovered all the time.

Scientist (PhDs) are trained to be unbiased for heavens sake.

 

im just pullin ur chain zainy-brainy

relax dood

 

well u are the devils advocate dood
:smt033

 

Educate myself?

I have a friend who almost died of cancer that was traced back to vaccines!
How REAL is that, peeps!

I see nowhere in my posts that I claim to be an expert!
Why do you assume I think I'm an expert?

I started the discussing with you because you were the scientist and I was hoping to have a friendly discussion of the subject over a cuppa tea.

I was stating a theory in the field of cancer research that happens to think after all these 40 years of cancer research that has yet to provide a definitive cure for cancer other than chemotherapy it may be due to the immortal cells leading the researchers down a dead end path.

Then there is the following information as well.


Are Vaccines Causing More Disease Than They are Curing?

By Alan Cantwell Jr., M.D.

Vaccines help keep us safe from infectious diseases. Smallpox and polio epidemics have been wiped out by mass vaccine programs. People rush to get flu shots every autumn, and kids are bombarded with a barrage of 22 required vaccinations before the age of six. Even pets need their shots. The manufacture of vaccines is a giant industry and what you pay for - inoculations and doctor visits - is big business for pediatricians, family practitioners and veterinarians. So why are more and more people worried about vaccines, especially the ones for kids?

Vaccine-induced Illness
Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Centre, a consumer's group based in Virginia, USA, claims vaccines are responsible for the increasing numbers of children and adults who suffer from immune system and neurologic disorders, hyperactivity, learning disabilities, asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and seizure disorders. She calls for studies to monitor the long-term effects of mass vaccination and Fisher wants physicians to be absolutely sure these vaccines are safe and not harming people.

No one can deny the dangers of vaccines. The measles, mumps, rubella (German measles) and polio vaccines, all contain live but weakened viruses. Although health officials tell you that polio has been wiped out in the US since 1979, they often fail to mention that all recorded cases of polio since that time are actually caused by the polio vaccine.

Vaccine investigator Neil Z. Miller questions whether we still need the polio vaccine when it causes every new case of polio in the USA. Before mass vaccinations programs began fifty years ago, Miller insists we didn't have cancer in epidemic numbers, that autoimmune ailments were barely known, and childhood autism did not exist.

Vaccine Contamination
There is also the problem of contamination that has always plagued vaccine makers. During World War II a yellow fever vaccine manufactured with human blood serum was unknowingly contaminated with hepatitis virus and given to the military. As a result, more than 50,000 cases of serum hepatitis broke out among American troops injected with the vaccine.

In the 1960s it was discovered that polio vaccines manufactured in monkey kidney tissue between 1955 and 1963 were contaminated with a monkey virus (Simian Virus, number 40). Although this virus causes cancer in experimental animals, health authorities insist it does not cause problems in humans. But evidence of SV40 genetic material has been popping up in human cancers and normal tissue. Researchers are now connecting SV40-contaminated polio vaccines to an increasing number of rare cancers of the lung (mesothelioma) and bone marrow (multiple myeloma). In a 1999 report, SV40 DNA was detected in tissue samples from four children born after 1982. Three were kidney transplant patients, and a fourth had a kidney tumour. Could SV40 be passed on from parents to their children? No one knows for sure.