[This tape was duplicated from a 16mm film 

by Erickson Archival for the National Library of Medicine, August 2003.

NLM call number HF0287]

[Reviewed by the Motion Picture Committee of the 

Intersociety Committee for Research Potential in Pathology, Inc.]

[Living Human Cells in Culture]

[C. M. Pomerat Tissue Culture Laboratory 

The University of Texas, Medical Branch, Galveston]

[The HELA Cell Strain-Cervical Carcinoma]

[Narrator:] The designation HeLa refers to the name of 

a patient who was operated for the treatment 

of a cervical carcinoma. 

[From the Studies of T. C. Hsu, P. S. Moorhead, C. M. Pomerat]

[Photography by C. George Lefeber, E. Earl Pitsinger]

[Produced by Wynne S. Eastman]

[For the Medical Audio-Visual Institute of the 

Association of American Medical Colleges]

[Narrator:] Dr. and Mrs. George Guy of the Johns Hopkins Hospital 

in Baltimore established this cell strain which has been 

in continuous culture since nineteen-hundred and fifty-one. 

HeLa cells are grown in test tubes where they 

may be harvested from the walls by means of a rubber policeman. 

The colonies are collected in petri dishes 

containing nutrient fluid. 

They are transferred later to the surface 

of a large sterile glass slide and cut into fragments 

suitable for subculture in bottles, test tubes, or on cover slips. 

Cells are stimulated by cutting, 

but this must be done 

with sharp knives to avoid excess trauma. 

The cut fragments are collected in a petri dish 

containing a nutrient solution. 

The essential steps in preparing a culture are now shown. 

Cover glasses are placed on a slide, 

and plasma is dropped on their surface. 

The tissues are now picked up on the tip of a knife blade 

and are transferred to the plasma. 

They are placed at equidistant points on the cover glass. 

An equal amount of embryonic extract is added, 

and the mixture is stirred. 

When the clot is set, each slide is placed in a test tube, 

fluid nutrient is added,

and the culture is incubated at body temperature. 

Here we see the development of a freshly transferred culture

photographed at one frame per minute. 

Notice the frame counter 

in the right-hand portion of the field. 

The middle number represents the flight of time in minutes. 

Since this portion of the film was photographed 

at one frame per minute,

and is being projected at 24 frames per second, 

what we see on the screen is accelerated 

by a factor of more than 1,000 times. 

The colony spreads with characteristic shifting motions 

of the cells. 

At higher magnification we see the advance 

of the margin of the outgrowing cells. 

Three arrows point to rotating nuclei, 

a curious phenomenon encountered in tissue cultures 

studied with time-lapse photography. 

At higher magnification, 

we see a nuclear rotation in an individual cell. 

This portion of the record is accelerated 160 times. 

Then the speed is increased to more than 1,000 times 

in order to dramatize the effect. 

Mitoses of normal and abnormal types are common. 

Three arrows locate elements which will show 

normal bipolar divisions, 

and a single arrow points to a cell 

which will produce a tripolar mitosis. 

Here is a quadripolar mitosis. 

Frequently, abnormalities of the spindle can be seen. 

Chromosomal movements show a wide variety of derangements. 

The number of chromosomes is generally between 80 and 90, 

but sometimes more than 200 chromosomes can be demonstrated 

in dividing cells of the HeLa strain. 

Two nuclei are seen in this giant cell, 

and here is a giant cell with multiple nuclei 

which appears to be in the process of degeneration. 

This portion of the film shows numerous 

threadlike cytoplasmic processes. 

Such filopodia are typical of the HeLa cell.

We see them in a sequence where the level of focus 

was changed to show their arrangement in patches. 

In the right-hand portion of this field,

the pattern is found even over the area of the nucleus. 

In situ, filopodia probably are associated 

in an interplay between neighboring cells. 

Here we can see the movements of intracellular strands 

between two cells in vitro. 

In addition to the surface activity of the threadlike processes, 

the cytoplasm often shows characteristic ruffles,

which lead to the engulfment of nutrient fluid invacuoles. 

This process is very commonly found in HeLa cultures. 

We see it taking place 

in the left-hand portion of the field. 

We can also observe twitching movements 

of the cytoplasm, which remain unexplained. 

This sequence and many others were collected 

in the course of investigations 

on the behavior of the HeLa cell as a part 

of a cancer research program. 

Cell drinking or pinocytosis,

as described by Dr. Warren Lewis many years ago, 

accounts for the intake of large quantities of nutrients. 

Cells of this type may ingest more than one-third 

of their volume in one hour. 

The mechanism of pinocytosis and its consequences 

remains one of the most challenging problems 

of cell physiology. 

These records show nutrient intake at the margin, 

and the migration of fluid vacuoles toward the nucleus. 

These fields were photographed 

with an oil immersion objective. 

Active folds on the surface of cells 

lead some observers to believe that this may result 

in the formation of mitochondria. 

However, at a slightly deeper level of focus, 

we see that filamentous mitochondria 

are quite different from the folds at the surface. 

A view of an entire cell,

photographed with phase-contrast optics,

shows cell organs such as mitochondria, vacuoles,

and lipoprotein granules grouped in characteristic patterns. 

The juxtanuclear zone or Golgi apparatus, 

as it is described from fixed preparations, 

is probably represented here in the aggregation 

of various cell organoids. 

The HeLa cell has become a very useful material for experimental work 

not only in the study of cancer but in the field of general cytology. 

It is easily cultivated, it exhibits many abnormalities, 

and is valuable for the cultivation of a wide variety of viruses.

This film made possible by a grant provided by the Abbott Laboratories

THE END