How a High-Gradient Magnetic Field Could Affect Cell Life

The biological effects of high-gradient magnetic fields (HGMFs) have steadily gained the increased attention of researchers from different disciplines, such as cell biology, cell therapy, targeted stem cell delivery and nanomedicine. We present a theoretical framework towards a fundamental understan...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-11, Vol.6 (1), p.37407-37407, Article 37407
Main Authors: Zablotskii, Vitalii, Polyakova, Tatyana, Lunov, Oleg, Dejneka, Alexandr
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/57
639/766
Biological effects
Cell division
Cell fate
Humanities and Social Sciences
Magnetic fields
Membrane potential
multidisciplinary
Nanotechnology
Science
Stem cells
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The biological effects of high-gradient magnetic fields (HGMFs) have steadily gained the increased attention of researchers from different disciplines, such as cell biology, cell therapy, targeted stem cell delivery and nanomedicine. We present a theoretical framework towards a fundamental understanding of the effects of HGMFs on intracellular processes, highlighting new directions for the study of living cell machinery: changing the probability of ion-channel on/off switching events by membrane magneto-mechanical stress, suppression of cell growth by magnetic pressure, magnetically induced cell division and cell reprograming, and forced migration of membrane receptor proteins. By deriving a generalized form for the Nernst equation, we find that a relatively small magnetic field (approximately 1 T) with a large gradient (up to 1 GT/m) can significantly change the membrane potential of the cell and thus have a significant impact on not only the properties and biological functionality of cells but also cell fate.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep37407