human cancer cell line splashed into my eyes - (May/26/2010 )

While i was looking down the microscope, the person beside me was counting cells and i think he splashed a drop of liquid in my eyes while he was pipetting cells into the hemacytometer. I'm not 100% sure if i got the liquid in my eyes, but im worried. It is either MCF-7 human breast cancer cells or HT29 colon cancer cell line. If i did get the cells into my eyes, will my immune system reject them or I will have a risk of getting cancer?

I will wear safety glasses from now on. Sorry if this sounds like a really stupid question, but i'm really worried.
Thanks for your reply in advance.

Your immune system will destroy these cells as being "non-self". I'm reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (the patient from which the HeLa cell line originates) and was shocked (and disgusted) to find out that early experiments included the injection of these cells under the skin of prison inmates to see if you could "catch cancer" from these cells and it was found that only those subjects that already had advanced cancer or immunodeficiencies developed tumors from the HeLa cells. It's a great read by the way that I recommend to anyone doing cell culture.

TTT on May 26 2010, 07:16 PM said:

Thank you so much for the reply, I feel so much better now. I'll go and check out that book in the library or the book store.

Thanks again!