This is not the first time I have heard that people refuse to vaccinate because they see embryonic cells in a vaccine.
This is not only with us. There is such obscurantism all over the world.
There are no embryonic cells in the vaccine itself. But these cells are used to make vaccines. From one such cell almost 50 years ago, scientists made a fantastic instrument that saved many lives.
This is the so-called HEK293 cell line. This is in English. Stands for Human Embryonic Kidney 293. That is, a line derived from embryonic kidney cells. The number 293 means the serial number of the experiment in which the first such cell was obtained. That is, it did not succeed immediately.
This cell line began in 1973 in Holland. There, scientists experimented with viruses and fused part of the adenovirus with a human embryonic cell.
So no one has exactly figured out where this embryo came from. It is only known that he was female.
It turned out such a hybrid of a virus with a person, in which there were one and a half times more chromosomes than it should be.
The cells of this line divided endlessly, it was convenient to put different viruses in them, and the cells obediently synthesized the proteins encoded in the viruses.
So scientists got a fantastic tool for the production of viral vectors.
We are with you already agreed that the vector is a virus that has been deprived of the ability to reproduce, but which can deliver some information inside our cells. Based on this information, the cell will make some desired protein.
The problem with viral vectors is that they cannot reproduce. And for a vaccine you need a lot of them. This is where the HEK293 cell line comes in. Such a cell is called a host cell. It helps the viral vector reproduce itself.
Remember how the story began? In one of the chromosomes, a cell named HEK293 was inserted part of the genes of the adenovirus.
So, a viral vector is placed inside the HEK293 cell. He himself does not know how to do anything. But the host cell knows what proteins it needs and makes them for it itself.
This is how the viral vector is multiplied to collect a vaccine for you and me.
These cells are like factories for the production of a viral vector, but there are no cells in the vaccine itself.
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