Was the Polio Vaccine Tested Using Henrietta Lacks’ Cells?

The cells of a Black woman who never consented to their collection became crucial to testing the polio vaccine. Her name was Henrietta Lacks. In 1951, Lacks was a 31-year-old mother being treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. During her treatment, doctors removed samples of her tumor. One sample was sent to researcher George Gey. Henrietta wasn’t asked for permission. At the time, obtaining tissue from patients without informed consent was common and wasn’t prohibited by existing law—but by today’s ethical standards, what happened raises profound issues of consent and autonomy. (hopkinsmedicine.org) Then something extraordinary happened. Henrietta’s cells kept dividing. Most human cells researchers had tried to grow eventually died. Henrietta’s didn’t. The cell line became known as: HeLa. Henrietta herself died from cervical cancer on October 4, 1951. She was only 31. But HeLa cells continued multiplying. Then came polio. Scientists developing and testing Jonas Salk’s vaccine needed enormous quantities of human cells to determine whether the vaccine generated antibodies capable of protecting cells from poliovirus. In 1952, researchers discovered HeLa cells could be infected readily with poliovirus. Then, in 1953, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis established a massive HeLa-production operation at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Black scientists and technicians grew HeLa cells on an industrial scale. The cells were shipped to laboratories around the country. And they became crucial tools for testing Salk’s vaccine before and during one of the largest medical experiments in American history. In 1954, approximately 1.8 million children participated in the massive polio vaccine field trial. Roughly 440,000 received vaccine injections, about 210,000 received placebo injections, and more than a million additional children served as observed controls. (historyofvaccines.org) The vaccine worked. On April 12, 1955, researchers announced that Salk’s vaccine was safe and effective. But Henrietta Lacks never knew what her cells had become. And for years, neither did her family. Her relatives learned in the 1970s that Henrietta’s cells were still alive in laboratories and being used around the world. HeLa became one of the most important cell lines in biomedical science. The cells contributed not only to polio research but to work involving cancer, viruses, genetics, vaccines, medications, and even spaceflight. Meanwhile, commercial companies sold HeLa cells and HeLa-derived products. In 2021, Henrietta Lacks’ estate sued Thermo Fisher Scientific, accusing the company of unjustly profiting from HeLa cells. On August 1, 2023, the parties announced a settlement. Its terms were confidential. (apnews.com) Henrietta Lacks didn’t volunteer to become one of the most important people in medical history. Her cells were taken without her knowledge. And more than seventy years later— HeLa cells are still alive in laboratories around the world. #HenriettaLacks #HeLaCells #BlackHistory #MedicalHistory #PolioVaccine #JonasSalk #TuskegeeInstitute #Bioethics #BlackWomenInHistory #historytok