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"The only immortal aspect of living material is the message found in information-containing molecules, and even that is subject to mutation and change." The never-ending story of HeLa Re: "HeLa Herself"1 and "The First Immortal Cell Line."2 HeLa was not the first immortal cell line. That honor goes to Strain L, which was isolated by Wilton Earle from mouse mesenchyme eleven years earlier.3 HeLa's distinction is that it was the first immortal human cell line. HeLa

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Re: "HeLa Herself"1 and "The First Immortal Cell Line."2 HeLa was not the first immortal cell line. That honor goes to Strain L, which was isolated by Wilton Earle from mouse mesenchyme eleven years earlier.3 HeLa's distinction is that it was the first immortal human cell line.

HeLa was not originally grown as a monolayer but as an explant, and not in a "nutrient solution of chicken plasma" but in a clot formed from chicken plasma and chicken embryo extract. The latter supplied the main source of nutrients. This technique had been used since the nineteen twenties by Alexis Carrel.

HeLa may have been sent to researchers "studying the effects of zero gravity in space," but the first normal human cell line sent into earth orbit was WI-38 - which I derived in 1962 - in 1973 aboard SkyLab.4

The assertion that "sales of those cells (HeLa) surely represent the ...

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