Abstract
In recent years, various stimuli were identified capable of enhancing neurogenesis, a process which is dysfunctional in the senescent brain and in neurodegenerative and certain neuropsychiatric diseases. Applications of electromagnetic fields to brain tissue have been shown to affect cellular properties and their importance for therapies in medicine is recognized. In this study, differentiating murine cortical networks on multiwell microelectrode arrays were repeatedly exposed to an extremely low-electromagnetic field (ELEMF) with alternating 10 and 16 Hz frequencies piggy backed onto a 150 MHz carrier frequency. The ELEMF exposure stimulated the electrical network activity and intensified the structure of bursts. Further, the exposure to electromagnetic fields within the first 28 days in vitro of the differentiation of the network activity induced also reorganization within the burst structure. This effect was already most pronounced at 14 days in vitro after 10 days of exposure. Overall, the development of cortical activity under these conditions was accelerated. These functional electrophysiological changes were accompanied by morphological ones. The percentage of neurons in the neuron glia co-culture was increased without affecting the total number of cells, indicating an enhancement of neurogenesis. The ELEMF exposure selectively promoted the proliferation of a particular population of neurons, evidenced by the increased proportion of GABAergic neurons. The results support the initial hypothesis that this kind of ELEMF stimulation could be a treatment option for specific indications with promising potential for CNS applications, especially for degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
Highlights
Already in 1896, Virchow expressed the modern idea in the context of regulation and disease: “The disease begins in the moment when the regulatory apparatus of the body is insufficient to eliminate the interference
We investigated the effects of electromagnetic exposure of an electromagnetic field (ELEMF) with a 150 MHz carrier frequency, which was alternatingly modulated with 10 and 16 Hz, on the differentiation of cortical networks’ activity and morphology after 10 (14 div) and 24 days (28 div) of exposure
We demonstrated that the exposure of primary cortical in vitro networks with a 150 MHz carrier frequency, pulse modulated with alternating 10 or 16 Hz increased activity and intensified the burst structure within network activity
Summary
Already in 1896, Virchow expressed the modern idea in the context of regulation and disease: “The disease begins in the moment when the regulatory apparatus of the body is insufficient to eliminate the interference. Not life under abnormal conditions, not the disorder as such produces disease, but the disease begins with the insufficiency of the regulatory apparatuses” [1]. In this respect, an increasing body of literature indicates that electrical and magnetic fields interact significantly with biological systems [2,3,4,5,6]. One of the first electrochemical models proposed that the cell membrane exerts linear physicochemical changes [12, 13] to assess the EMF parameters for which biological effects might be expected. The transduction mechanism for non-thermal EMF biological effects has not been fully elucidated. It is thought that the effectiveness is related to the fine manipulation of cell regulation and communication taking place in this power range
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