immortal cells

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anyone heard of this before?

They are not "immortal".

Please remember cells, Like Plants. Need energy (food) to survive. Without The "Host" Body or substance. These cancer cells will die.

Cancer cells Die when they over multiply, and over Consume the "Host". Whether it be a Body or Glucose substitute.

Also remember Cancer cells are simple structures with simple purposes. They "eat" not serve the host. The cells that serve the host have millions of different functions. And the higher the number, The greater amount of "error" enters the equation.

Then we get into a mutations that happens from radiation, Chemical or biological alterations in the World environment. A sterile petri dish Has a "controlled" environment. The Chaos of Nature is not controlled. Not to mention the infinite complex Nature of variables that enter the picture.

Wow, msnevil, you could not possibly be more wrong. There are, in fact, "immortal" cells. Immortilization is actuall a fairly common immunological process, one which, as a medical student, I have seen performed and performed myself. Cancer cells are stuck in the growth phase of the cell cycle, meaning they continue to divide rapidly. They do not "die when they over multiply" because immortilization occurs outside the body in a culture. Cancer cells in a person are NOT considered immortal. The HeLa line the previous poster was referring to is a common line of cells named after their donor, Henrietta Lacks (thus, HeLa) who died in late 1951 of cervical cancer. Cells are still taken from her culture to this day and used in studies. All you have to do is keep luria broth supplied to the cells and they will be able to live and divide indefinitely.

Originally posted by bsl4doc
All you have to do is keep luria broth supplied to the cells and they will be able to live and divide indefinitely.

Hmmm.... don't know what kind of cell culture lab you're working in, but I've never seen anyone grow HeLa on LB. LB is a rich medium for bacteria.

In fact, I've never seen ANY mammalian cells grown in LB.

*SNIP*

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[edit on 26/12/2005 by Mirthful Me]

You most certainly can use LB with HeLa in some respects. All the work I have done involving HeLa was regarding the bacterial response to certain cytokines emitted by cancer cells, and all of these studies were done exclusively on LB. Try googling HeLa and luria broth together and you'll see many studies that have done the same thing. *SNIP*

[edit on 24-12-2005 by bsl4doc]

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[edit on 24/12/2005 by Mirthful Me]

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[edit on 25/12/2005 by Mirthful Me]

ok, bsl4doc. I am not a "pre-med Doctor, Just a peon Nurse".

Anyway, I know a little bit about Cancer Cells and thier long life Span. Even Though, I am not a "doctor" or "Future Doctor"

1)"Immortal Cells" Don't Need Food to live. (simple)
2) Cancer cells are Primitive, and have no function. Except to consume. They are parasites That consume the host. And then Die. (agian simple)
3) In evolution. Cells that adapt, Evolve.

For some reason, Our own cells Program themselves to die after so many replications. During those replications, The "learned" knowledge of the previous Cell is passed on. For exp. The Bodies ability to recognize and destroy different Bacteria.

Cancer Cells are like the Human Version of the Zombie. They Consume, They are long lasting, But they have no ability to evolve past thier primal instinct. To Eat. And when All the Human's Are Dead. They die as well. Hardly seems immortal to me.

It might be simple minded, But to me Its commen Sense.

"1)"Immortal Cells" Don't Need Food to live. (simple) "

Yes, they do. That's why they have to be grown in nutrient broth in order to keep the cell line alive.

"2) Cancer cells are Primitive, and have no function. Except to consume. They are parasites That consume the host. And then Die. (agian simple)"

Cancer cells are actuall normal cells, could be muscle, neural, cardiac, etc, that has become stuck in the growth phase of the cell cycle. This can be due to oncogenes being turned on by chemicals, certain viruses, etc.

"3) In evolution. Cells that adapt, Evolve."

Umm..I'm not clear on what you're saying here. Yes, that's true, they do, but cancer cells can do the same. When you put a culture of HeLa cells in a broth rich in arabinose instead of glucose, certain adaptive genes turn on that allow it to metabolise arabinose instead. That counts as adaptation.

"For some reason, Our own cells Program themselves to die after so many replications. During those replications, The "learned" knowledge of the previous Cell is passed on. For exp. The Bodies ability to recognize and destroy different Bacteria"

That's not entirely true. First, yes, they are programmed to die for many reasons, including the last replication. This is called apoptosis. However, they do not pass on "learned" knowledge. The reason cells can recognize bacteria better the second time we get an illness is because during the first infection, called a first set reaction in immunological terms, we develop plasma B cells and memory B cells (in the case of viruses, we develop memory T and cytotoxic T cells). The plasma cells release antibodies specific for that bacteria, and then die off about 10 days later. The memory B cells, however, stick around for about 10 months and then die off. These memory B cells allow us to react to the same infection faster the second time because they rapidly divide into antibody producing cells quickly, as opposed to the original B cell it derived from. So really, when a cell divides, it passes on NO "learned" knowledge whatsoever. The adaptive immune system is relient on cellular selection, not evolution.

"Cancer Cells are like the Human Version of the Zombie. They Consume, They are long lasting, But they have no ability to evolve past thier primal instinct. To Eat. And when All the Human's Are Dead. They die as well. Hardly seems immortal to me."

I think this is where you and I are misunderstanding each other. Immortal cells are not referring to cancer cells in the body. They are referring to cells grown in a laboratory culture DERIVED from cells in the body. No, of course cancer cells in the body aren't immortal. And it is true they die when the person dies. Cells in a culture, however, that have been induced to become cancers, can in fact be immortal if given proper nutrients.

~MFP