51-Year-Old Human Cells Used All the Time in Research

I did a good deal of research several years back on longevity, looking at the work of folks like Ray Kurzweil and, especially, Aubrey de Grey to see what some smart folks were saying about the coming singularity. One of the things I learned about was cell death. Specifically, I learned that cells reach a point called “senescence” where they can no longer split and reproduce. There are these little protective piles of DNA set at the end of a chromosome called “telomeres” that protect the chromosome and allow it to replicate itself (by avoiding the “end replication problem” [hat-tip to James Watson]). However, each time the chromosome replicates, it gets shorter. One day, it runs out completely. No telomere, no cell-replication. Once the cell dies, it’s gone for good. Enough cells die, and … well, you get the picture.

The good folks at the Nobel Institute awarded the 2009 Prize for Medicine to three researchers who were instrumental in explaining telomeres’ behavior and purpose: Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak. So it must be reliable science, right?

So then, explain to me the immortal cells of Henrietta Lacks.

From this fascinating yet completely infuriating article in the Smithsonian:

In 1951, a scientist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, created the first immortal human cell line with a tissue sample taken from a young black woman with cervical cancer. Those cells, called HeLa cells, quickly became invaluable to medical research—though their donor remained a mystery for decades. In her new book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, journalist Rebecca Skloot tracks down the story of the source of the amazing HeLa cells, Henrietta Lacks, and documents the cell line’s impact on both modern medicine and the Lacks family.

[Lacks] was a black tobacco farmer from southern Virginia who got cervical cancer when she was 30. A doctor at Johns Hopkins took a piece of her tumor without telling her and sent it down the hall to scientists there who had been trying to grow tissues in culture for decades without success. No one knows why, but her cells never died.

The article goes on to interview the author who tracked down Lacks’ family and uncovers the story of the woman behind these cells, which have been used ever since in all sorts of groundbreaking research, including creating the polio vaccine and HIV treatments. What it DOESN’T do is tell me what I most want to know: how the heck can these cells still be alive?

It says “no one knows” why, but I bet some folks out there know a lot about WHY we don’t know why. Anyone out there know anything about this? Love to hear from you.

I suppose I could also buy the book….

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I’m in the middle of Ronald Bailey’s “Liberation Biology” ( http://www.prometheusbooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_2&products_id=1821 ), which also had a very interesting chapter about health and longevity.

From what I understood there is more to it (actually *much* more) than merely telomere end replacement. Bailey actually argues that our bodies — through evolution — weren’t selected for longevity, but for optimal replication possibilities in changing circumstances. Or, in other words, the *genes* live on — have great longevity — while the carriers of these genes are more or less disposable husks.

And those ‘husks’ have gained — possibly through an evolutionary glitch, as Peter Watts argues in his seminal novel “Blindsight” — self-consciousness, and try to throw a spanner in the works, wanting longevity like the genes they carry.

Interesting times…

February 17th, 2010

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