One Of The Many Uses of the HeLa Cell

As is known to many scientists and people worldwide, the HeLa cells which originated from Henrietta Lacks, has helped make many medical and scientific breakthroughs and advancements. One of the fields that received a lot of help from HeLa cells was virology.
Virology is the biological study of viruses. Basically, the HeLa cells were used to study the effects of viruses on regular cells. This may confuse people because these cells are not regular cells, they are malignant cancer cells so how could they really be used to test how normal cells would react to viruses.

Well, to the surprise of many, even though HeLa cells reproduce uncontrollably compared to other cells, they tend to share many characteristics with regular cells. For one, HeLa cells communicate with their fellow cells and created proteins just like regular cells. They also regulate their genes, divide, generate energy, and most importantly they get infected just like regular cells.
They were even proven to be more useful for  the study of viruses because thy divide rapidly so the infection or virus would grow quicklier. This would yield quicker results. Since the results can come faster, there could be more trials which would give the scientists better, more accurate results.

Karyotypes: HeLa cells vs normal cells

There are many way that the two karyotypes are extremely different. One is that, in the HeLa cells there are different numbers of chromotids compared to the normal cell. Ann Fischer of USCF, UCLA and UC Berkeley even states that "[HeLa cells] have the strangest karyotype. They have 3 copies of this, and two copies of that and 5 copies of that. They're not normal." At the bottom of the picture of the HeLa karyotype are different pieces of chromosomes being compressed together, there isn't a place where the jumbled chromosomes can be settled. These karyotypes were probably caused by the impaired assortment of the chromosomes during meiosis.

Behavior of HeLa cells and other cancer cells

HeLa cells are very different from other cancer cells but they do share a set of behaviors that classify them as cancer cells. First and foremost, HeLa cells obviously have uncontrolled growth, they jump start their growth by themselves regardless of what's going on around them. Because of this growth, the cancer cells ignore any signals that tell them to stop dividing and expand their numbers. A significant characteristic of HeLa cells and other cultured cancer cells, is that they can exist in conditions that would kill other cells, and adapt to almost any environment. Since they are so powerful, HeLa cells have been known to occasionally contaminate other cell lines used for research.

A possible explanation of the HeLa cells growth behavior can happen in the metaphase during mitosis. During metaphase ensures that the spindles are properly attached to the sister chromatids, but if the spindles are not properly attached the cell cannot continue on through mitosis and causes a mutation which can lead to cancer, Fortunately it is not easy for a normal cell to turn into a cancer cell.

How did Henrietta Lacks cancer?

Henrietta Lacks had internal bleeding, due to the harsh pain, she went to the hospital and was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

There are many possibilities of how Henrietta got cancer. There might have been a mutation while her cells were undergoing mitosis and her sister chromatids might have not separated evenly. Another possibility is that her CDK did not recognize any threats resulting in a tumor growing and eventually causing cancer.

HeLa Cell

The Immortal HeLa Cells

And the Unlawful Ways in Which They Were Attained

How many times have you heard of the desire to be immortal? Well, in her 

own way, Henrietta Lacks has achieved that goal. Even though she died in 

1957 of aggressive cervical cancer, the cells taken from one of her tumors in 

John Hopkins Hospital have lived on forever. HeLa cells named after the first 

2 letters of Henrietta's first and last name, are the first cells to continue to 

reproduce and survive in a petri dish. They have helped create vaccines for 

Polio, tested in outer space, and mass produced for scientific research around 

the world. One would think that since the cell and tissue trading business in 

medicine is a multi-billion dollar industry, the Lacks' family would be highly 

imbursed for the use of these highly effective immortal cells. Unfortunately, the exact opposite is true for Henrietta's family. In fact, they have struggled throughout the years and couldn't even afford health insurance for some time. The descendants of a woman that had changed medicine as greatly as Henrietta couldn't even afford healthcare. 

 Although Henrietta's cells have made great leaps in medicine, I find it unethical to use her cells because it lacks her consent. She made these breakthroughs unknowingly with no gain to her family. Johns Hopkins basically put this "sacrifice for society" upon her. Yes, certain things must be done for the greater good of all, but we have a right to choose whether or not we want to make that sacrifice. This is an option not given to Henrietta and then on top of that her family was not reimbursed.