Abstract
Cerebral stroke is a leading cause of death and adult-acquired disability worldwide. To this date, treatment options are limited; hence, the search for new therapeutic approaches continues. Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) affect a wide variety of biological processes and accumulating evidence shows their potential as a treatment for ischemic stroke. Based on their characteristics, they can be divided into stationary, pulsed, and sinusoidal EMF. The aim of this review is to provide an extensive literature overview ranging from in vitro to even clinical studies within the field of ischemic stroke of all EMF types. A thorough comparison between EMF types and their effects is provided, as well as an overview of the signal pathways activated in cell types relevant for ischemic stroke such as neurons, microglia, astrocytes, and endothelial cells. We also discuss which steps have to be taken to improve their therapeutic efficacy in the frame of the clinical translation of this promising therapy.
Highlights
Stroke is the most common cause of adult-acquired disability (Cichoń et al, 2017a; Urnukhsaikhan et al, 2017) and the third cause of death worldwide after heart disease and cancer (Christophe et al, 2017)
This study presents a novel analysis of the mechanisms of actions related to pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF); it presents evidence of a prophylactic effect of PEMF
As can be appreciated from this review, there is increasing evidence that supports the idea that therapeutic effects can be achieved from Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in ischemic stroke
Summary
Stroke is the most common cause of adult-acquired disability (Cichoń et al, 2017a; Urnukhsaikhan et al, 2017) and the third cause of death worldwide after heart disease and cancer (Christophe et al, 2017). When an ischemic process takes place, it triggers a series of events known as an ischemic cascade. These events initiate with hypoxia, which leads to an augmentation of cytotoxicity, causing inflammation, edema, and eventually neuronal death and loss of functional brain tissue. The blood flow is below 10–25% resulting in rapid, inevitable necrosis of neurons and supporting glial cells. This zone is surrounded by the penumbra: a rim of mild to moderately ischemic tissue in which infarction is evolving and which is viable for several hours after the insult. Many treatments have been developed that aim to prevent the death of these neurons in the penumbra, such as recanalization therapies which recover the blood flow (Rha and Saver, 2007; Amki and Wegener, 2017)
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