The morphological and molecular changes of brain cells exposed to direct current electric field stimulation.
Pelletier SJ, Lagacé M, St-Amour I, Arsenault D, Cisbani G, Chabrat A, Fecteau S, Lévesque M, Cicchetti F. · 2014
View Original AbstractElectric fields at 25-100 V/m directly altered brain cell structure and triggered inflammatory responses in laboratory studies.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed brain cells to direct current electric fields at different intensities to see how they would respond. They found that neurons grew longer and changed shape, immune cells called microglia became more inflammatory, and support cells called astrocytes also changed their structure. This study helps explain how electric fields can directly alter brain cell behavior and function.
Why This Matters
This research provides crucial evidence that electric fields can fundamentally alter brain cell structure and function at the cellular level. The study examined direct current fields ranging from 25 to 100 volts per meter, which are comparable to fields that can be generated by certain medical devices and some high-voltage power lines. What makes this particularly significant is that the researchers documented not just physical changes in cell shape, but also molecular changes in protein expression that affect inflammation and cell growth. The finding that microglial cells increased their production of cyclooxygenase-2, an inflammatory enzyme, suggests that electric field exposure could potentially trigger neuroinflammation. This adds to the growing body of evidence that electromagnetic fields can have biological effects on the nervous system, even when those effects aren't immediately apparent as symptoms.
Exposure Details
- Electric Field
- 0, 25, 50, and 100 V/m
Study Details
The aim of this study is to observe The morphological and molecular changes of brain cells exposed to direct current electric field stimulation.
Here, we tested various intensities of direct current electric fields (0, 25, 50, and 100V/m) in a w...
In response to direct current electric field, neurons developed an elongated cell body shape with ne...
We show that cells of the central nervous system can respond to direct current electric fields both in terms of their morphological shape and molecular expression of certain proteins, and this in turn can help us to begin understand the mechanisms underlying the clinical benefits of direct current electric field.
Show BibTeX
@article{sj_2014_the_morphological_and_molecular_692,
author = {Pelletier SJ and Lagacé M and St-Amour I and Arsenault D and Cisbani G and Chabrat A and Fecteau S and Lévesque M and Cicchetti F.},
title = {The morphological and molecular changes of brain cells exposed to direct current electric field stimulation.},
year = {2014},
url = {https://academic.oup.com/ijnp/article/18/5/pyu090/785203?login=true},
}