A HeLa xenograft refers to a tumor model in which human HeLa cancer cells are implanted into immunodeficient mice (typically nude or SCID mice), allowing researchers to study tumor growth, drug efficacy, and toxicity in vivo.
🧬 What are HeLa cells? HeLa is a human cervical cancer cell line derived in 1951 from Henrietta Lacks.
It is the oldest and most widely used cell line in biomedical research.
HeLa cells are highly proliferative, robust, and easy to grow — but not representative of all tumors.