The immortal cells of Henrietta Lacks - Robin Bulleri

翻译人员: Cissy Yun 校对人员: Sally Zhang

Imagine something small enough to float on a particle of dust

想象一种小到可以漂浮在一粒灰尘上的东西

that holds the keys to understanding cancer, virology, and genetics.

它是人们理解癌症，病毒，和基因的关键之物

Luckily for us,

幸运的是

such a thing exists in the form of trillions upon trillions

有亿万个此物

of human lab-grown cells called HeLa.

以人类实验室培育细胞的形式存在 它的名字叫海拉细胞（HeLa）

Let's take a step back for a second.

让我们先退一步来看

Scientists grow human cells in the lab to study how they function,

科学家在实验室中培育人类细胞 来学习它们如何起作用

understand how diseases develop,

理解疾病是如何产生的

and test new treatments without endangering patients.

和在避免危害病人的情况下 试验新研制的药物

To make sure that they can repeat these experiments over and over,

为了确保科学家可以重复这些试验

and compare the results with other scientists,

以及与其他科学家比较试验结果

they need huge populations of identical cells

他们需要大量相同细胞的储备

that can duplicate themselves faithfully for years,

这些细胞需要年复一年的不断分裂

but until 1951, all human cell lines that researchers tried to grow

但1951年前，所有科学家尝试培育的人类细胞

had died after a few days.

在几天之内就会死亡

Then a John Hopkins scientist named George Gey

后来，一位约翰霍普金斯医院的研究者George Gey

received a sample of a strange looking tumor:

收到了一份样子奇怪的肿瘤样本

dark purple, shiny, jelly-like.

深紫色，有光泽的，胶状的物体

This sample was special.

这是个十分特殊的样本

Some of its cells just kept dividing,

其中的一些细胞不断

and dividing,

不断

and dividing.

不断的分裂

When individual cells died,

当单个细胞死去时

generations of copies took their place and thrived.

它一代代的复制品代替了它 并且继续兴盛生长

The result was an endless source of identical cells that's still around today.

最后便有了如今还存在的“无尽”相似细胞

The very first immortal human cell line.

第一种永生的人类细胞系

Gey labeled it "HeLa" after the patient with the unusual tumor, Henrietta Lacks.

Gey将它命名为海拉细胞（HeLa） 名从携带这不寻常肿瘤的病人 Henrietta Lacks

Born on a tobacco farm in Virginia,

她出生于弗吉尼亚州的一个烟草农场

she lived in Baltimore with her husband and five children.

与她的丈夫和五个孩子住在巴尔迪莫

She died of aggressive cervical cancer

她在她的肿瘤细胞被获取后的几个月后

a few months after her tumorous cells were harvested,

死于侵略性宫颈癌

and she never knew about them.

但她从不知道自己的细胞被移去

So what's so special about the cells from Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks的细胞到底有什么特别之处

that lets them survive when other cell lines die?

能让它在其他细胞系都死去时 可以唯独生存下来

The short answer is we don't entirely know.

简单来说 我们也不是很清楚

Normal human cells have built-in control mechanisms.

正常的人类细胞之中有调节机制

They can divide about 50 times before they self destruct

在它们分裂大约五十次时就会

in a process called apoptosis.

以细胞凋亡的形式自我毁灭

This prevents the propagation of genetic errors

这种机制阻止了在多次分裂后可形成的

that creep in after repeated rounds of division.

基因缺陷的传播

But cancer cells ignore these signals, dividing indefinitely

但是癌细胞会无视这种信号 永无止境的分裂

and crowding out normal cells.

并将正常细胞挤走

Still, most cell lines eventually die off, especially outside the human body.

但是，一般的细胞系，特别是在人体外的 最终会死去

Not HeLa, though, and that's the part we can't yet explain.

海拉细胞就不同了 可是，这也是我们无法解释的地方

Regardless, when Dr. Gey realized he had the first immortal line of human cells,

不管怎样，当Gey博士意识到自己发现了 第一条永生人类细胞系时

he sent samples to labs all over the world.

他讲这些样本寄送到了世界各地的实验室

Soon the world's first cell production facility

马上，世界上第一个细胞生产设备

was churning out 6 trillion HeLa cells a week,

在一个星期中生产出了六万亿个海拉细胞

and scientists put them to work in an ethically problematic way,

可是，在利用海拉细胞的过程中，科学家没有遵守伦理标准

building careers and fortunes off of Henrietta's cells

他们在拓展事业与收获财富前

without her or her family's consent, or even knowledge until decades later.

并没有获得Henrietta和她家人的同意 甚至在几十年过后才告诉他们

The polio epidemic was at its peak in the early 50s.

小儿麻痹症的蔓延度在五十年代到达了顶峰

HeLa cells, which easily took up and replicated the virus,

海拉细胞很快占据并复制了这病毒

allowed Jonas Salk to test his vaccine.

让Jonas Salk得以试验他的疫苗

They've been used to study diseases,

海拉细胞被用于对疾病的研究

including measles,

其中包括麻疹

mumps,

腮腺炎

HIV,

艾滋

and ebola.

和伊波拉病毒

We know that human cells have 46 chromosomes

我们所知道的人类细胞拥有46条染色体

because a scientist working with HeLa discovered a chemcial

是因为一位科学家利用海拉细胞 发现了一种化学物质

that makes chromosomes visible.

能使染色体可见

HeLa cells themselves actually have around 80 highly mutated chromosomes.

海拉细胞自己拥有大约八十条高度变异的染色体

HeLa cells were the first to be cloned.

海拉细胞是第一个被克隆的细胞

They've traveled to outer space.

它们还曾到过外太空

Telomerase,

端粒酶

an enzyme that helps cancer cells evade destruction by repairing their DNA,

这个酶会修复癌细胞的DNA, 避免癌细胞的死亡

was discovered first in HeLa cells.

在海拉细胞中被第一次发现

In an interesting turn of fate,

还有一场有趣的命运的转折

thanks to HeLa, we know that cervical cancer can be caused by a virus called HPV

感谢海拉细胞，我们才得知宫颈癌是由一种叫做 人乳头状瘤病毒（HPV）的病毒造成的

and now there's a vaccine.

现在也有了针对其的疫苗

HeLa-fueled discoveries have filled thousands of scientific papers,

有几千份海拉细胞引导的科学论文

and that number is probably even higher than anyone knows.

这个数字很有可能比我们知道的还多

HeLa cells are so resilient that they can travel on almost any surface:

海拉细胞非常有弹性，这让他们可以在任何表面上流动

a lab worker's hand,

在一个实验室工作人员的手上

a piece of dust,

在一片灰尘上

invading cultures of other cells and taking over like weeds,

"侵入"其他细胞的培养，并向杂草一样蔓延并代取

countless cures, patents and discoveries all made thanks to Henrieta Lacks.

无数种疗法药物，专利和发现 这些都要感谢Henrietta Lacks