Question: Cell and Research Contamination
In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, major problems cropped up when it was discovered that many of the cells used in research had been contaminated by by HeLa cells. Has other contamination taken place and how does this affect research results?
Answer: Henrietta Lacks' cells, called HeLa cells by researchers, most of whom had no idea who the cells had come from, have been used for almost 60 years in biomedical research.
As described in Skloot's book, there came a time in the 1960s when some scientists began to question some of the results their research yielded. Eventually it was discovered that many of the cells being used in their research had been invaded, or infected or contaminated by HeLa cells, rendering all that research useless. Cell lines that were not supposed to be related to Henrietta's cell lines were contaminated with HeLa cells. Cell lines that supposedly belonged to chickens or mice were contaminated with HeLa cells. All research done using those cell lines was discounted.
Problems with contamination continue today. In 2011, the New York Times reported on plant cells used in research that were contaminated with human cells, probably as a result of the humans that handled them and processed them for testing.
Contaminated research is compounded when it is combined with profit motives. If the researchers or their employers are concerned with the bottom line, then conflicts of interest can arise that will interfere with reporting structures.
