The Pulse Magnetic Field Controls the Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines of LPS-Induced BALB/c Mice

Abstract

The inflammatory response is a defense mechanism that responds to damage to body tissues and is activated by pathogen infection and injury. Among the various diverse mechanisms for treating chronic inflammatory diseases, it is known that reducing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines is the most effective. Magnetic field stimulation could be suggested as a useful tool for the treatment of muscle, nerve and pain, because it could affect the bioelectricity of ionic flow on the cell membrane in a non-invasive manner. In addition, pulsed magnetic field(PMF) has been used in neurological studies. In this study, we aimed to investigate <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">in vivo</i> that PMF stimulation can reduce the amount of pro-inflammatory cytokines, TNF-α and IL-6, after injecting BALB/c mice with LPS, which is widely used in inflammatory studies. Moreover, we have tried to understand the role of PMF in the inflammatory response expressed in lung and spleen tissue. The expression of TNF-α mRNA in spleen tissues by RT-PCR showed a significant increase in the LPS group and a 46% decrease in the LPS + PMF group. In addition, the levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 in the serum of the mice, tested by ELISA, showed that the LPS group expressed a large amount of IL-6 compared to a 45% lower level in the LPS + PMF group. Also the histopathological studies demonstrated protective effects of PMF against LPS-induced lung injury and Iba-1-positive inflammatory cells were detected in a significantly lower number in the LPS + PMF group as compared to the LPS-induced spleen tissue. All our findings are in agreement with the result showing that PMF has anti-inflammatory effects <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">in vivo</i> by modulating excessive inflammatory responses. Therefore, our research paves the way for the development of medical devices to treat chronic inflammatory diseases and modulate the immune response using PMF.