Typical Vaccine Ingredients Explained

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Vaccines are one of the most heatedly discussed medical topics today, and there’s often confusion about what they actually contain. Some people worry about “aborted foetal cells” or chemicals like mercury and aluminium.

As a physician I was asked countless times about vaccines, so below is a list of the most common ingredients and what they mean.

Foetal Cell Lines: What They Are and Are Not

Foetal cell lines are special cell cultures that scientists grow in laboratories.

They were originally created decades ago (1960s–1980s) from tissue obtained after elective abortions.

Commonly used cell lines include:

WI-38 (foetal lung, 1962)
MRC-5 (foetal lung, 1966)
HEK 293 (foetal kidney, 1973)
C6 (foetal retina, 1985)

These cells are many generations removed and have been grown in labs for decades.

Important: Certain viruses are grown in these cells during production, and then the vaccine is purified. DNA fragments may remain, but not intact cells.

Vaccines That Have Used Foetal Cell Lines

Some vaccines have historically used these human cell lines in their development or production:

MMR (Rubella component) – WI-38 or MRC-5
Varicella (Chickenpox) – MRC-5
Hepatitis A (Havrix, Vaqta, Twinrix) – MRC-5
Shingles (Zostavax, older version) – MRC-5
Rabies (Imovax, some versions) – MRC-5
Covid-19 vaccines
- Pfizer & Moderna: tested using HEK 293, not produced in them.
- Johnson & Johnson / AstraZeneca: produced using HEK 293 or PER.C6.

Many other vaccines are produced in chicken eggs, yeast, or other cell cultures.

Common Ingredients in Vaccines

Vaccines typically contain more than just the virus (or viral protein). For purposes of effectiveness and stability, they may include:

Adjuvants

Aluminium salts (aluminium hydroxide, aluminium phosphate, aluminium potassium sulphate): used in vaccines like DTaP, hepatitis A & B, HPV, pneumococcal.

Preservatives

Thimerosal (a mercury-containing compound)

Once common in multi-dose vials of vaccines.
Removed or reduced to trace amounts in nearly all U.S. childhood vaccines since the early 2000s.
Still used in some multi-dose flu vaccines.

Stabilizers

Sugars (sucrose, lactose)
Gelatine (often from pork)
Proteins (such as human serum albumin or bovine serum albumin)

Residuals from the manufacturing process

Egg protein (in flu vaccines grown in chicken eggs)
Yeast proteins (in vaccines made using yeast, like HPV and Hepatitis B)
Cell culture material (DNA/protein traces from human or animal cell lines used to grow viruses)

Other components

Formaldehyde
Antibiotics

So vaccines have been researched, developed, or produced using foetal-derived cell lines and DNA is left in small amounts. Another way of looking at that is it’s usually a small human that’s getting injected.

History

Here’s the background of the abbreviations and which aborted foetuses these cells originated from. You’d think the Churches would have something to say about this but then again most are given government funding to support and follow the party line (and that’s left and right).

HEK 293

Name meaning: “HEK” = Human Embryonic Kidney, 293 = the 293rd experiment performed by the scientist (Dr. Frank Graham, 1973).
Origin: Kidney cells from a female foetus aborted in the Netherlands in 1973.
Use: Used in biotechnology and medical research, including testing and production of some covid-19 vaccines.

PER.C6

Name meaning: Derived from “PER” = Per.C6 designation by Crucell (a Dutch company).
Origin: Retinal cells from an 18-week foetus, elective abortion in 1985 in the Netherlands.
Use: Used in gene therapy, monoclonal antibody production, and in some vaccine platforms (e.g., Johnson & Johnson covid-19 vaccine).

MRC-5

Medical Research Council — 5 (the fifth cell culture developed by that team).

Origin / year: Derived in 1966 at the UK Medical Research Council (National Institute for Medical Research).
Foetus details / tissue: Lung tissue from a 14-week foetus (elective abortion).
Cell type / properties: Human diploid foetal lung fibroblast cell strain (a finite cell strain, not an immortal cell line).
Used in: Historically used to grow viruses for vaccine development and production – examples include Hepatitis A, Varicella (chickenpox), older Zostavax (shingles), and some rabies vaccines, among other research uses.
WI-38 & MRC-5 = foetal lung cell lines from the 1960s – used in rubella, chickenpox, Hepatitis A, and some rabies/shingles vaccines.
HEK 293 & PER.C6 = kidney/retina cell lines from the 1970s–1980s – widely used in biotech research and certain covid-19 vaccines.

Thanks for taking the time to go through this article as it’s not always easy to dig into details like these, but your effort to learn and educate yourself is something worth applauding and your future generations will appreciate your knowledge.

Author: Dr. Steven L. Robertson

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October 8, 2025