"An immortalized mouse cell line had been developed in 1940, but no continuous human cell line existed: until HeLa." HeLa cell which is immortal cell used in scientific research is probably one of the most important tools for research and medicine since 20th century. It is the oldest and most commonly used human cell line was derived from cervical cancer cells taken on February, 1951 from Henrietta Lacks who was a patient and died of her cancer on October, 1951. HeLa cells have helped us to survive from kind of illness and diseases, have been used to test chemotherapy.(Chin, Corinne. - Science in the Early 20th Century)(http://www.blog.onebooknu.org/2011/11/science-in-the-early-20th-century/)
"Fifty years after Henrietta Lacks died of aggressive glandular cervical cancer, the first cell line - HeLa cell line - is the workhorse of laboratories everywhere. It helped to produce drugs for numerous diseases, including poliomyelitis, Parkinson's, leukemias. But they are so outrageously robust that they contaminated hundred of other cell lines, as far away as Russia. For decades, biologists worked with contaminated cell lines and today, the problem is not yet solved. But the story of HeLa cells is also a moving reflection of racial and ethical issues in medicine in the late half-twentieth century in the USA."(by Gilgenkrantz S. - Requiem for Henrietta.)(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20510154)
As HeLa cell was found, the medical circles have been developing till today. Her cells exposed scientists to endless toxins, radiation and inflections and the scientists bombarded her cells with drugs, hoping to find one that would kill malignant cells without destroying normal ones. They studied immune suppression and cancer growth by injecting HeLa cells into immune-compromised rats, which developed malignant tumors much like Henrietta's. If the cells died in the process, it didn't matter - scientists could just go back to their eternally growing HeLa stock and start over again. (Rebecca Skloot - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks)
WORK CITED
Chin, Corinne. "Science in the early 20th Century."3 Nov.(2011).
Web. 10 Jan. 2012.
S. Gilgenkrantz. "Requiem for Henrietta." 26 May.(2010)
Web. 10 Jan. 2012.
Skloot, Rebecca. "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. 2010."
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