HeLa Cells

Culturing Hela Cells

2010-09-25T01:43:00.000-07:00

Watch the Hela cell culture protocol from thawing to plating out.

Medium: 90% of MEM or DMEM (with Earle's salts) with 10% FCS + 2 mM L-glutamine + non-essential amino acids. Can also use RPMI-1640 and 5-10% FBS.

Subculture: split confluent culture 1:4 or 1:6 every 3-5 days depending on confluency using trypsin/EDTA. Rate of doubling time is 24 to 48 hours. Seed at 1-2 x 106 cells/80 cm2. Incubate at 37 °C with 5% CO2

Storage: frozen with 70% medium, 20% FCS with 10% DMSO at about 1 x 106cells/ampoule

Asymmetric spindle orientation oh HeLa cells

2010-09-25T00:42:00.000-07:00

Asymmetric spindle orientation oh HeLa cells on crossbow shaped micropattern

Henrietta Lacks, HeLa Cells, and Cell Culture Contamination

2010-08-31T02:13:00.000-07:00

Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 of an aggressive adenocarcinoma of the cervix. A tissue biopsy obtained for diagnostic evaluation yielded additional tissue for Dr George O. Gey's tissue culture laboratory at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, Maryland). The cancer cells, now called HeLa cells, grew rapidly in cell culture and became the first human cell line. HeLa cells were used by researchers around the world. However, 20 years after Henrietta Lacks' death, mounting evidence suggested that HeLa cells contaminated and overgrew other cell lines. Cultures, supposedly of tissues such as breast cancer or mouse, proved to be HeLa cells. We describe the history behind the development of HeLa cells, including the first published description of Ms Lacks' autopsy, and the cell culture contamination that resulted. The debate over cell culture contamination began in the 1970s and was not harmonious. Ultimately, the problem was not resolved and it continues today. Finally, we discuss the philosophical implications of the immortal HeLa cell line.

Reference and rest of the article: Lucey BP, Nelson-Rees WA, Hutchins GM. 2009. Henrietta Lacks, HeLa cells, and cell culture contamination.Arch Pathol Lab Med. 133(9):1463-7

Story of HeLa cells

2010-03-28T23:40:00.000-07:00

The entire story of Hela cells and the Henrietta Lacks.

HeLa cell culture protocol

2010-02-14T01:54:00.000-08:00

Medium: 90% of MEM (with Earle's salts) with 10% FCS + 2 mM L-glutamine + non-essential amino acids. Can also use RPMI-1640 and 5-10% FBS.

Subculture: split confluent culture 1:4 or 1:6 every 3-5 days depending on confluency using trypsin/EDTA. Rate of doubling time is 24 to 48 hours. Seed at 1-2 x 106 cells/80 cm2. Incubate at 37 °C with 5% CO2

Storage: frozen with 70% medium, 20% FCS with 10% DMSO at about 1 x 106cells/ampoule

Reporting of HeLa cells for the first time by George Gey

2010-02-14T01:38:00.000-08:00

The cells of a human epithelial cancer cultivated en masse have been shown to support the multiplication of all three types of poliomyelitis virus. These cells (strain HeLa of Gey) have been maintained in vitro since their derivation from an epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix in February, 1951. As the virus multiplied it caused in from 12 to 96 hours degeneration and destruction of the cancer cells. The specific destructive effect of the virus was prevented by adding homotypic antibody to the cultures but not by adding heterotypic antibodies. Methods for the preparation of large numbers of replicate cultures with suspensions of strain HeLa cells were described. The cells in suspension were readily quantitated by direct counts in a hemocytometer. A synthetic solution that maintains cellular viability was employed for viral propagation. The experimental results demonstrate the usefulness of strain HeLa cells for (a) the quantitation of poliomyelitis virus, (b) the measurement of poliomyelitis antibodies, and (c) the production of virus.

Scherer wf, Syverton jt, Gey go. J Exp Med. 1953 97(5): 695-710.

Adherent Hela cells

2010-02-14T01:32:00.000-08:00

Hela cells are an adherent cell line; that is they stick to the bottom of the cell culture flask. They are able to rapidly grow till the cells come in contact with each other and then they stop growing. They usually spread across the surface of the flask and when two adjacent cells come in contact with each other, they stop growing, a phenomena called “contact inhibition”. This growth pattern in a classic growth pattern of oncogenic cells. The doubling time for Hela cells are approximately 24 hours.
Watch adherent Hela cells in cell culture.

Hela cell culture protocol

2010-02-06T02:13:00.000-08:00

Hela cells can be grown to the appropriate density usually 70% in a humidified chamber at 37°C, 5% CO2. HeLa cells in many labs are cultured in 75 cm2 flasks (or medium flasks). HeLa cells are grown in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium with10% fetal bovine serum (FCS) and 1% MEM non-essential amino acids with penicillin-streptomycin at 1% is added to the culture media.

They can also be maintained in RPMI1640 containing penicillin-streptomycin, nonessential amino acids, sodium pyruvate, L-glutamine and 10% fetal calf serum and incubated in a humidified atmosphere with 5% CO2 at 37°C.

HeLa cell culture

2010-02-06T01:39:00.000-08:00

Hela cells are an adherent cell line meaning that after being seeded in flasks it will adhere to the bottom of the container.

HeLa cell division

2010-02-06T01:30:00.000-08:00

Hela cells dividing. As long as there are appropriate media, the Hela cells will divide indefinitely.

HeLa cells dividing

2010-02-06T01:27:00.001-08:00

A Woman’s Undying Gift to Science

2010-02-06T01:24:00.000-08:00

The best book blurb I’m aware of came from Roy Blount Jr., who said about Pete Dexter’s 1988 novel, “Paris Trout”: “I put it down once to wipe off the sweat.” I’m not sure I know what that means. Was the sweat on Mr. Blount’s forehead? On the dust jacket? On the inside of his fogged-up reading glasses? But I like it.
I put down Rebecca Skloot’s first book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” more than once. Ten times, probably. Once to poke the fire. Once to silence a pinging BlackBerry. And eight times to chase my wife and assorted visitors around the house, to tell them I was holding one of the most graceful and moving nonfiction books I’ve read in a very long time.

Read the rest of the story on Hela cells and Lacks.

Henrietta Lacks: A Donor's Immortal Legacy

2010-02-06T01:21:00.000-08:00

In 1951, an African-American woman named Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer. She was treated at Johns Hopkins University, where a doctor named George Gey snipped cells from her cervix without telling her. Gey discovered that Lacks' cells could not only be kept alive, but would also grow indefinitely.

For the past 60 years Lacks' cells have been cultured and used in experiments ranging from determining the long-term effects of radiation to testing the live polio vaccine. Her cells were commercialized and have generated millions of dollars in profit for the medical researchers who patented her tissue.

Lacks' family, however, didn't know the cell cultures existed until more than 20 years after her death. Medical writer Rebecca Skloot examines the legacy of Lacks' contribution to science — and effect that has had on her family — in her new book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

List to Medical writer Rebecca Skloot examining the legacy of Lacks' contribution to science.

Henrietta Lacks: The Miracle Woman

2010-02-06T01:18:00.000-08:00

When Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cancer in 1951, doctors took her cells and grew them in test tubes. Those cells led to breakthroughs in everything from Parkinson's to polio. But today, Henrietta is all but forgotten. In an excerpt from her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot tells her story.

In 1951, at the age of 30, Henrietta Lacks, the descendant of freed slaves, was diagnosed with cervical cancer—a strangely aggressive type, unlike any her doctor had ever seen. He took a small tissue sample without her knowledge or consent. A scientist put that sample into a test tube, and, though Henrietta died eight months later, her cells—known worldwide as HeLa—are still alive today. They became the first immortal human cell line ever grown in culture and one of the most important tools in medicine: Research on HeLa was vital to the development of the polio vaccine, as well as drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinson's disease; it helped uncover the secrets of cancer and the effects of the atom bomb, and led to important advances like cloning, in vitro fertilization, and gene mapping. Since 2001 alone, five Nobel Prizes have been awarded for research involving HeLa cells.

Read the rest of the excerpt on Hela cells and Henrietta Lacks.

Who was Henrietta Lacks

2010-02-05T03:03:00.000-08:00

Not long before her death, Henrietta Lacks danced. As the film rolled, her long thin face teased the camera, flashing a seductive grin as she moved, her eyes locked on the lens. She tilted her head back and raised her hands, waving them softly in the air before letting them fall to smooth her curlers. Then the film went blank.

Henrietta danced in Turners Station, a small, segregated Baltimore community where she moved in 1943. She had come by train from a plantation town in Virginia, leaving her kin behind, most still picking tobacco long after freedom from slavery. As she sped toward Baltimore, at the age of 23, her husband, David Lacks, waited in their new brick house with a stove that burned gas instead of wood. Henrietta knew she was heading into a more modern world. What she didn't know was that less than a decade later, after giving birth to her fifth child, her womb would give rise to a new age in medicine.
More on Henrietta Lacks.

Immortality of Hela cells

2010-02-05T03:01:00.000-08:00

HeLa cells are termed "immortal" in that they can divide an unlimited number of times in a laboratory cell culture plate as long as fundamental cell survival conditions are met (HeLa cells have an active version of the enzyme telomerase during cell division, which prevents the incremental shortening of telomeres that is implicated in aging and eventual cell death. More on Hela Cells.

Where did the Hela cells come from?

2010-02-05T03:00:00.000-08:00

HeLa cells are a human epithelial cervical cancer (cervical cancer), and the first human cells, from which a permanent cell line was established. On 9 February 1951, surgeon Lawrence Wharton Jr. removed the tissue from the patient Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old African American woman from Baltimore, in the Women's Clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The cells were from the carcinoma of the cervix and were expected to be examined for malignancy. The patient died 8 months later from the disease. Read More on Hela Cells.