Cell lines are cultures of cells that were originally obtained from the tissue of a single individual and kept alive, usually in tubes or petri dishes. Some have been kept in culture for many decades. They’re supposed to be a pure population of cells with minimal genetic variation1, which is useful for generating consistent and reproducible results.
The Hep-2 cell line was first described in 1954 as laryngeal cancer cells; aka cancer cells of the larynx, an organ involved in breathing and making sounds.
In 1966 however, Stan Gartler discovered that Hep-2 cells were actually derived from contamination by cervical cancer cells from a cell line called “HeLa,” so named because they had come from a woman named Henrietta Lacks.
“Cervical,” means of the cervix, which is the lower part of the uterus in the female reproductive system. That’s obviously a totally different kind of cell.
Gartler published his results in 1968 in Nature. His findings were independently corroborated in 1988.
However, it seems a lot of people didn’t get the memo.
A review from 2019 revealed that since 1954, 1036 out of 5461 publications using Hep-2 cells were still mistakenly referring to them as laryngeal. A more recent study found that as of June 2021, 3163 out of 8497 articles using Hep-2 cells were still describing them as laryngeal.
Reply With QuoteOriginally Posted by bobman
