From: How electromagnetic fields can influence adult stem cells: positive and negative impacts
Stem cell type | EMF characteristics | Exposure duration | Differentiation type | Stimulation effects | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sinusoidal EMF | |||||
BM-MSCs | ELF-EMF  Magnetic flux density: 1 mT  Frequency: 50 or 100 Hz | Continuous for up to 8 days | Neurogenic | No effects on cell viability Increase in the expression of neuronal markers (NeuroD1, MAP2, NF-L) Stimulation of neural differentiation | Park et al. 2013 [17] |
BM-MSCs | ELF-EMF  Magnetic flux density: 1 mT  Frequency: 50 Hz | Continuous for 12 days | Neurogenic | Inhibition of MSC growth Decrease of the neural stem cell marker expression (nestin) Increase of the neural cell marker expression (MAP2, NeuroD1, NF-L, and Tau) | Cho et al. 2012 [39] |
BM-MSCs | ELF-EMF  Magnetic flux density: 5 mT  Frequency: 15 Hz | Three times a day (45 min every 8 h) for 21 days | Chondrogenic | More compact structure Varied effects on cartilage-specific marker expression (increase in COL II, decrease in COL X, or no impact on aggrecan, SOX9) Higher glycosaminoglycan/DNA content Improvement of chondrogenic differentiation in combination with growth factor treatment | Mayer-Wagner et al. 2011 [23] |
BM-MSCs (derived from fetus) | ELF-EMF  Magnetic flux density: 20 mT  Frequency: 50 Hz | 12 h/day for up to 23 days | Osteogenic | Decrease of MSC growth and metabolism No significant effect on MSC differentiation | Yan et al. 2010 [38] |
ASCs | EMF  Magnetic flux density: 1 mT  Frequency: 30/45 Hz (positive differentiation conditions); 7.5 Hz (negative differentiation conditions) | 8 h/day | Osteogenic | Alterations in ALP expression level Alterations in osteogenic differentiation level Alterations in the expression of osteogenic markers Enhancement of matrix mineralization | Kang et al. 2013 [6] |
ESCs | Low-frequency EMF  Magnetic flux density: 5 mT  Frequency: 1, 10, and 50 Hz | 30 min/day for 3, 5, or 7 days | – | Increase in cell proliferation rate, in a frequency-dependent manner (the highest rate in the 50 Hz group) Alterations in the cell cycle No effect on cell morphology and cell phenotype | Zhang et al. 2013 [35] |
Combination of static and sinusoidal EMF | |||||
CSCs | Static MF  Magnetic flux density: 10 μT Sinusoidal ELF-EMF  Magnetic flux density: 2.5 μT  Frequency: 7 Hz (Ca2+ ICR) | Up to 5 days | Cardiogenic | Increase in metabolic activity Increase in proliferation rate Increase in the expression of cardiac markers (TnI, MHC, Nkx2.5) Decrease (SMA) or no change (VEGF, KDR) in the expression of vascular markers Alterations in the intracellular calcium distribution | Gaetani et al. 2009 [11] |
CSCs/BM-MSCs | Static MF  Magnetic flux density: 10 μT Sinusoidal ELF-EMF  Frequency: 7 Hz (Ca2+ ICR) | For 5 days | Cardiogenic/osteogenic | Upregulation of cardiac markers (TnI, MHC) Downregulation of angiogenic markers (VEGF, KDR) Increase in the expression of osteogenic markers (ALP, OC, OPN) Alterations in plasma membrane morphology accompanied by a rearrangement in actin filaments | Lisi et al. 2008 [43] |
Pulsed EMF | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â |
BM-MSCs | Magnetic flux density: 1.1 mT Frequency: 5, 25, 50, 75, 100, and 150Â Hz | 30Â min/day for 21Â days | Osteogenic | Alterations in cell morphology Increase in ALP expression and activity Increase in the expression of osteogenic markers (COL I, OC) Stimulation of osteogenic differentiation Enhancement of matrix mineralization | Luo et al. 2012 [7] |
BM-MSCs | Magnetic flux density: 1.8–3 mT Frequency: 75 Hz | 8 h/day for 14 days | Osteogenic | Acceleration of cell proliferation Alterations in cell cycle Increase in ALP expression level Enhancement of the osteogenic differentiation | Esposito et al. 2012 [45] |
BM-MSCs | Time of pulses: 300 μs (repetitive single quasi-rectangular pulses) Magnetic flux density: 0.13 mT Frequency: 7.5 Hz | 2 h/day for 14 days | Osteogenic | Time-dependent alterations in cell proliferation rate Stimulation of ALP activity at day 7 Enhancement of early osteogenic genes expression (Runx2/Cbfa1 and ALP) during the mid-stage of osteogenic differentiation | Tsai et al. 2009 [5] |
BM-MSCs | Time of bursts: 5 ms Time of pulses: 5 μs Magnetic flux density: 0.1 mT Frequency:15 Hz | Continuous exposure | Osteogenic | Increase of matrix mineralization No effect on ALP activity Upregulation of several osteogenic marker genes (BMP-2, OC, OPG, IBSP, MMP-1, MMP-3) Stimulation of osteogenic differentiation | Jansen et al. 2010 [41] |
BM-MSCs/osteoblast-like cells | Time of bursts: 5 ms Time of pulses: 1 μs Magnetic flux density: 0.1 mT Frequency:15 Hz | Continuous exposure | Osteogenic | Increase of cell viability rate No effect on osteo-induction | Kaivosoja et al. 2015 [47] |
BM-MSCs | Time of bursts: 4.5 ms Number of pulses: 20 Magnetic flux density: 1.8 mT (increase from 0 to 1.8 mT in 200 μs steps and then decrease to 0 mT in 25 μs steps during each pulse) Frequency: 15 Hz | 8 h/day during culture period | Osteogenic, adipogenic, neurogenic | Enhancement of cell proliferation rate Increase of cell densities Alterations of cell cycle progression No effect on the surface phenotype or multilineage differentiation potential | Sun et al. 2009 [21] |
BM-MSCs | Time of bursts: 4.5 ms Number of pulses: 20 Magnetic flux density: 1.8 mT (increase from 0 to 1.8 mT in 200 μs steps and then decrease to 0 mT in 25 μs steps during each pulse) Frequency: 15 Hz | 8 h/day during the culture period | Osteogenic | Increase in cell proliferation Increase in ALP expression and activity Time-dependent alterations of osteogenic marker expression (BMP-2, Cbfa1, COL I, OC) Enhancement of matrix mineralization | Sun et al. 2010 [33] |
BM-MSCs/osteoblast-like cells | Time of bursts: 4.5 ms Number of pulses: 20 Magnetic flux density: 1.6 mT (increase from 0 to 1.6 mT in 200 μs steps and then decrease to 0 mT in 25 μs steps during each pulse) Frequency: 15 Hz | 8 h/day | Osteogenic | Surface-dependent decrease in cell number Increase in OPG expression level | Schwartz et al. 2009 [37] |
BM-MSCs/ASCs | Number of pulses: 10 Time of pulses: 1.3Â ms Magnetic flux density: 1.5 mT Frequency: 75Â Hz | Whole differentiation time (28Â days) | Osteogenic | Increase in ALP activity Increase in OC expression Induction of ASC osteogenic differentiation Enhancement of matrix mineralization | Ongaro et al. 2014 [49] |
BM-MSCs | Time of bursts: 4.5 ms Number of pulses: 20 Magnetic flux density: 1.6 mT (increase from 0 to 1.6 mT in 200 μs steps and then decrease to 0 mT in 25 μs steps during each pulse) Frequency: 15 Hz | 8 h/day for 24 days | Osteogenic | Synergistic increase in ALP activity over that caused by BMP-2 Enhancement of the stimulatory effect of BMP-2 on OC | Schwartz et al. 2008 [40] |
WJ-MSCs | Magnetic flux density: 1.8 or 3 mT Frequency: 75Â Hz | 8Â h/day for up to 21Â days | Chondrogenic | Increase in cell division Increase in cell densities Increase in COL II expression level Induction of early chondrogenic differentiation | Esposito et al. 2013 [36] |
Sinusoidal PEMF | |||||
ESCs | Magnetic flux density: 5 mT Frequency: 50 Hz | 30 min/day for 14 days | – | Increase in proliferation rate | Bai et al. 2012 [32] |
Low-frequency pulsed EMF (BEMER type) | |||||
BM-MSCs/chondrocytes | Time of pulses: 30 ms Magnetic flux density: 35 μT (increase from 0 to 35 μT in 30 ms steps) Frequency: 30 Hz | Five times at 12-h intervals for 8 min | – | Impact on cell metabolism and cell matrix structure No increased expression of cancer-related genes | Walther et al. 2007 [48] |
Pulsed EMF and single-pulse EMF | |||||
ASCs | PEMF  Time of bursts: 67.1 ms  Number of pulses: 21  Time of pulses: 5.46 ms  Magnetic flux density: 2 mT  Frequency: 15 Hz SPEMF  Time of bursts: 5 s  Number of pulses: 30  Time of pulses: 5 ms  Magnetic flux density: 1 T | PEMF: 8 h/day SPEMF: 3 min/day | Osteogenic/chondrogenic | No effects on cell viability Increase of the cartilaginous matrix deposition with both PEMF and SPEMF Enhancement of chondrogenic gene expression (SOX-9, COL II, and aggrecan) with both PEMF and SPEMF Enhancement of bone matrix gene expression (OC, COL I) only with PEMF | Chen et al. 2013 [42] |