Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-10-12
Individual Body Cells
Freed for First Time
Pure Cultures Isolated
At National Cancer Institute
BY THONGS r. Henry


Every human being is an autocrati-
cally ruled community of billions of
billions Of what might be considered
individual acknowledgements in size,
highly specialized.
They are the body cells. There are
many varieties of them, with many
jobs to do. Existing as individuals each
might be immortal. AS community,
however. they have sacrificed individual
immortality. They have become COM
pletely dependent on each other. The
same is true of the cell community of
mouse, or of tree.
Now, for the first time, few kinds
of them have been set free from the
limitations of the community. They
are being grown as free-living animals
again with potential Immortality re-
stored and with far-reaching implica-
tions for medical science. Pure cultures
of human and rat cells are being grown
by DR.. w. r. Earle and his colleagues
at the National Cancer Institute of the
Public Health Service.
Descended From One Cell.
Each culture. now consisting of mil
lions of individuals, is descended from
a single individual. Each has what
might be considered complete freedom
of action in a nutrient solution of
chicken embryo extract and blood
plaSma.
Almost half century ago DR.. Alexis
Carrel of the Rockefeller Institute
succeeded in obtaining a culture of
chicken heart cells, which, potentially
immortal, was considered one of the
miracles of biological science. This
culture. however, was only pioneering
effort and, for all practical purposes.
little more than scientific curiosity.
The chicken heart cells never could
be gotten free completely from the
blood plasma clot from which they
started, They continued as chicken
heart tissue, not as individual chicken
heart cells. They were far from pure
culture of millions of individuals
derived from single ancestor.
"A few years ago DR.. Earle and his
colleagues. after years of experiment
to develop their techniques, were able
to obtain the first pure culture derived
from single cell, of mouse Sub-cuta-
neouS connective tissue. This was tiny
organism less than thousandth Of an
inch in diameter. In the nutrient me-
dunn it multiplied very rapidly into
many millions of similarly sized, sup
posedly identical organisms. They were
suspended freely, as individuals, in the
clear fluid.
This first COLONY has been split up
into many colonies and samples have
been sent all over the United States
and Europe. They now number billions
and billions of individuals, all from this
single ancestor. There has been no
possibility of any extraneous organism
getting into them.
Other Tissues Used.
A little later cultures were obtained
from mouse liver and from mouse con-
nective tissue. BY perfection of the
technique it was found possible to grow
much larger colonies in the form Of
sheets on the glass walls of bottles.
From any single individual separated
from such group new colony could
be started.
Within the last few months, National
Cancer Institute workers have been
able to extend their technique to few
types of human body cells, basic con-
Stituents from which a human body
is made, multiplying without the limita-
tions placed upon them by life within
the great body community.
Theoretically each of these cultures
might be considered immortal. This
probably is not actually true, however,
DR.. Earle believes. Eventually, it is
likely, each separate. culture will decline
in vitality and die. although the laws
governing this are completely unknown.
The size to which any individual cul-
ture can be grown also is problematical.