Abstract
BackgroundThe effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on bone nonunion have been reported for many years. Many studies and randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that EMF exhibited benefits in curing delayed union and nonunion of long bone fractures. Most of them focused on the immediate effects, while the legacy effects of EMF remain poorly investigated.MethodsIn this study, rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) were treated with EMF, and after a period of time the BMSC proliferation and differentiation were detected. Additionally, BMSC sheets with or without EMF treatment were transplanted into the rat tibia fracture nonunion models. The bone formation was evaluated after 2, 4, and 6 weeks.ResultsOur results showed that the proliferation capacity of BMSCs was heightened after EMF pretreatment. Over a period of time of EMF pretreatment, the capacities of osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation were enhanced, while adipogenic differentiation was weakened. BMSC sheets pretreated with EMF could better promote the healing of tibia fracture in rats, compared to BMSC sheets alone. Furthermore, significantly higher values of radiographic grading scores were observed in the EMF group.ConclusionsEMF has lasting effects on the proliferation and differentiation of BMSCs, and together with cell sheet technology can provide a new method for the treatment of fracture nonunion.
Highlights
The effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on bone nonunion have been reported for many years
In the cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) of the EMF group were treated with EMF for 7 days and seeded in 96-well plates for subsequent 6-day culture
Compared with the Control group, BMSCs pretreated with EMF exhibited a higher proliferation level (Fig. 2a)
Summary
The effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on bone nonunion have been reported for many years. Many studies and randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that EMF exhibited benefits in curing delayed union and nonunion of long bone fractures. Electromagnetic fields (EMF) have been studied for bone disorders for many years [2, 3]. Several research studies have shown that EMF with different parameters had various effects on bone problems [4,5,6]. The current study mainly focuses on the immediate effect of EMF, namely detection and comparison. Tu et al Stem Cell Research & Therapy (2018) 9:215 approach. In a rat bone nonunion model, a BMSC sheet as a scaffold-free graft can obviously promote fracture healing [17, 18]. Due to the limitations of the cell sheet source and the uncontrollable cell differentiation, various studies seek to explore regulatory approaches including vitamin C treatment, electropathy, a pH change-induced method, and magnetic treatment [19, 20]
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