Electrical Conductivity of Bone Marrow Cell Cultures and Their Connection with Proliferative Activity: Age Aspect

Abstract

Functional activity is a basic concept of biology; however, instrumental methods of its determination are absent. The interrelation between bone marrow cell proliferative activity, as one of the functional activity parameters, the content of calcium, copper, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the cells, and the electrical conductivity of the cell culture was studied in young and old Wistar rats aged 3 and 20 months. We determined the electrical conductivity of the bone marrow cell cultures and parameters of bone marrow cells (proliferative activity and calcium, copper and ROS content). The bone marrow cells of old intact animals had higher proliferative activity in the primary culture as compared to that of young animals. The content of the 8 main morphological cell types in the young and old animals were similar, while the lymphocyte content was larger in the old animals. Content of ions in the bone marrow cell cultures of old animals as compared with that in young animals varied as follows: Content of calcium was 75 % higher, copper was 5 times lower, and ROS was 2.5 times lower. It was found that the conductivities of the pure culture medium and of that after the cultivation of the bone marrow cells in the nutrient medium were significantly different. It has been suggested that the electrical conductivity of biological media could be used as an integral characteristic of the ionic composition and structural organization of biological media. HIGHLIGHTS Electrical conductivity of bone marrow cells suspension of young animals was decrease to compared with this indicator of old animals Proliferative activity is correlated with electrical conductivity Electrical conductivity of biological media is influenced both the composition, and macromolecules and their state of aggregation