More than 50 years after the WI-38 cell line was derived from a fetus,
science and society has still to get to grips with the ethical issues of using
human tissue in research.
A scientist grows the tissue into a cell line. The cell line becomes one of
the most important medical tools worldwide. Millions of lives are saved and
millions of dollars made. The woman who made the breakthrough possible and her
family are largely forgotten. Sound familiar?
That story describes the development of the famous He La cell line, grown
from cancer tissue taken from a poor black woman. Until now, that story has
failed to reach the broad audience it deserves.
The cell line in this case is called WI-38, in which the initials represent
the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where
the early work was done. WI-38 has arguably had an even bigger impact on science
and medicine than the He La line. They have been widely used for the production
of virus vaccines given to many people worldwide—against rubella, for
instance—and in research as a prototypical normal human cell.
More than half a century ago, a Swedish woman had her pregnancy terminated
and the WI-38cells were grown from tissue samples taken from the lungs of the
fetus. That makes some people uncomfortable, but fetal tissue remains a useful
and common tool in medicine today.In addition to it use in vaccine production,
it has been used to make drugs against rheumatoid arthritis and cystic
fibrosis.