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HeLa Cell Metabolism
Dr. Gey experimented with a wide variety of ingredients in his culture medium to grow the imortal cells including: chicken blood, minced cow fetus, and human umbilical cord blood. Blood has a large amount of glucose and amino acids, so it made an ideal environment for growing cells. Today culture mediums come in two basic forms, solid and liquid. Solid mediums are often made of agar, which is made from seaweed. Liquid mediums more closely resemble Gey's medium and consist of table salt, meat, and water. These growth mediums are rich in essential nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids.

Cells have the ability to metabolize a wide range of biological molecules. The most common processes HeLa and other eukaryotic cells utilize are glycolosis and cellular respiration as a means for breaking down carbohydrates and producing Adenosine triphosphate (ATP). It has also been found that cells have the ability to metabolize other biological molecules than carbohydrates for energy production. Cancer cells in particular utilize these other pathways more often because of their uncontrolled growth. All cells use Glutaminolysis at one point or another throughout cell proliferation as an alternative to glucose for a source of carbon and ATP. In a study done by the University of Washington, St. Louis, it was found that less than 2% of the glutamine in culture media was used for protein production. The rest was used for energy production. Glutamine can be broken down through the process of Glutaminolysis which converts the amino acid glutamine into α-ketoglutarate through aerobic oxidation in the citric acid cycle. This resulted in the formation of approximately half the HeLa cell's energy in the presence of glucose and almost all of the cell's energy in the presence of galactose or fructose. HeLa cells were found to still be energetically active in the complete absence of all carbohydrates, this means they were able to produce enough energy.

There are a few different situations in which cells would want utilize Glutaminolysis. The first is in the absence of glucose and other carbohydrates. The next is during the late G1 and S phases of the cell cycle. During the G1 phase the cell is duplicating its organelles and using considerable amounts of energy. This added source of energy allows the cell to move from the G1 phase to the S phase. During late G1 phase the cell activates glutaminase 1 (GLS1) and 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphos-phatase, isoform 3 (PFKFB3)to begin glycolosis and glutaminolysis. During early S phase both enzymes are marked for distruction, however GLS1 is more difficult to break down than PRKRB3 because of its structure, leaving more GLS1 available to begin glutaminolysis. This leaves glutamine as the next available energy source to get the cell through the S phase.

Biological Immortality
HeLa cells are said to be the first true immortal human cell line since they do not have a set number of divisions they can undergo. These cells originated from a sample of cervical cancer taken from Henrietta Lacks in 1951 and are still alive today. These cells have been and still are widely used in biological research such as creation of the polio vaccine, sex hormone steroid research , and cell metabolism.