The breathtaking courage of Harriet Tubman - Janell Hobson (Maj 2024)
Henrietta Lacks, rojena Loretta Pleasant, (rojena 1. avgusta 1920, Roanoke, Virginija, ZDA - umrla 4. oktobra 1951, Baltimore, Maryland), Američanka, katere celice raka materničnega vratu so bile vir celične linije HeLa, katere raziskave so prispevale do številnih pomembnih znanstvenih dosežkov.
Kviz
Znani ameriški obrazi: dejstvo ali fikcija?
Clarence Darrow je bil znan tožilec 19. stoletja.
Potem ko je mati leta 1924 umrla ob rojstvu otroka, se je oče z 10 otroki preselil v Clover v Virginiji, kjer jih je razdelil med sorodnike, ki jih bodo vzgajali. Henrietto je tako vzgojil njen dedek, ki je skrbel tudi za drugega vnuka, Henriettinega bratranca Davida, znanega kot Day. Henrietta in Day sta se poročila 10. aprila 1941. Dana, ki jo je spodbudil bratranec, se je kmalu preselila proti severu v Maryland, kjer je delala v jeklarni Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point, ki se je razmahnila zaradi povpraševanja po drugi svetovni vojni. Kmalu zatem sta se Henrietta in otroci para pridružili Dnevu na postaji Turner v Marylandu, skupnosti zunaj Baltimoreja, kjer je živelo veliko afroameriških jeklarjev.
Pred peto nosečnostjo je Henrietta v sebi začutila "vozel", zaskrbljujoča krvavitev in znaki grudice na materničnem vratu pa so nekaj mesecev po porodu Henrietto končno poslali k zdravniku. Napotili so jo na ginekološki oddelek v bolnišnico Johns Hopkins v Baltimoru, kjer je februarja 1951 biopsija pokazala, da je bil vrat materničnega vratu, ki so ga zdravniki odkrili ob rojstvu sina 19. septembra 1950, in v nadaljevanju - pregled šest tednov kasneje.
After further tests, Henrietta received the first of several radium treatments, the standard of care for the day, which involved stitching small glass tubes of the radioactive metal secured in fabric pouches—called Brack plaques—to the cervix. While performing the procedure, the surgeon extracted two small tissue samples: one from Henrietta’s tumour and one from healthy cervical tissue close by. The samples from Henrietta’s cervix were among many extracted for physician George Gey, the head of tissue culture research at Johns Hopkins, who was searching for an “immortal” cell line for use in cancer research. Unlike previous samples, Henrietta’s cancerous cells—called HeLa, from Henrietta Lacks—not only survived but also multiplied at an extraordinary rate. Henrietta herself was unaware that any sample had been taken; at that time it was not uncommon to study patients and their tissues without their knowledge or consent (see Tuskegee syphilis study).
While her cells thrived, Henrietta declined. By September the cancer had spread throughout her body, and early the following month Henrietta died. However, the HeLa cells, famed for their longevity,continued to thrive in culture long after Henrietta’s death. HeLa became a ubiquitous study material, contributing to the development of drugs for numerous ailments, including polio, Parkinson disease, and leukemia. In spite of this, until the 1970s Henrietta’s role was unknown even to her family. In the 21st century Henrietta’s case was an important component in the debate surrounding informed consent from patients for the extraction and use of cells in research. In 2013 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) granted the Lacks family control over how data on the HeLa cell genome would be used (the genome of a HeLa cell line had been sequenced in full earlier that year). Two members of the Lacks family formed part of the NIH’s HeLa Genome Data Access working group, which reviewed researchers’ applications for access to the HeLa sequence information.
