A study of the effects of flux density and frequency of pulsed electromagnetic field on neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of pulsed electromagnetic fields with various flux densities and frequencies on neurite outgrowth in PC12 rat pheochromocytoma cells. We have studied the percentage of neurite-bearing cells, average length of neurites and directivity of neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells cultured for 96 hours in the presence of nerve growth factor (NGF). PC12 cells were exposed to 50 Hz pulsed electromagnetic fields with a flux density of 1.37 mT, 0.19 mT and 0.016 mT respectively. The field was generated through a Helmholtz coil pair housed in one incubator and the control samples were placed in another identical incubator. It was found that exposure to both a relatively high flux density (1.37 mT) and a medium flux density (0.19 mT) inhibited the percentage of neurite-bearing cells and promoted neurite length significantly. Exposure to high flux density (1.37 mT) also resulted in nearly 20% enhancement of neurite directivity along the field direction. However, exposure to low flux density field (0.016 mT) had no detectable effect on neurite outgrowth. We also studied the effect of frequency at the constant flux density of 1.37 mT. In the range from 1 ∼ 100 Hz, only 50 and 70 Hz pulse frequencies had significant effects on neurite outgrowth. Our study has shown that neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells is sensitive to flux density and frequency of pulsed electromagnetic field. © Springer 2006.