Hela cells have played important roles in the development of many medical treatments.
The role of Hela cells in the development of Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was to prove the vaccine's efficacy. In the 1950's, poliomyelitis was a highly contagious virus that was spreading throughout the world. Dr. Jonas Salk, a virologist, believed he had created a vaccine for the polio virus. His vaccine contained dead/inactive polio virus. Salk believed that when he injected the vaccine into the body, the body would develop antibodies to fight off the live polio virus if it was ever exposed to it.
To prove his theory, Dr. Salk would have to do many neutralization tests. In the neutralization test, he took blood serum from the children who had been inoculated with his vaccine. He then combined the blood serum with HeLa cells. HeLa cells were the perfect test "subject" . They could be grown in large amounts and they were highly susceptible to polio. Salk then added live poliomyelitis virus to the mix. The result was that the polio virus did not enter the HeLa cells which meant that Salk's vaccine had been able to create antibodies in the blood serum to neutralize the virus. Salk did many of these tests with the same results. This proved that Salk's vaccine was effective and many people, especially children, were inoculated with the vaccine, and this quieted down the polio epidemic.
ARTICLE BY : Justin H.