Effects of oscillating magnetic field on mammalian cells: Theoretical analysis and experiments

The question whether electric and magnetic fields can affect biological systems has been investigated for quite some time. In this paper, a model of cells exposed to the oscillating magnetic field was described. Time varying magnetic field and its inducing electric field produce force on the moving ions, thus accelerates the ions. Ions play many important roles in membrane stabilization, cellular homeostasis, and process transduction in all living organisms. On the basis of the theoretical analysis, a series of experiments were designed to confirm the theory. Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hMSCs) were used in our experiment. The hMSCs were exposed to a continuous sinusoidal 50Hz, 20mT magnetic field for 23 days. The results demonstrate the significant changes of Na +, K + ion concentrations and osmolarity in cell supernatant comparing to the control group. These results of experiments appear to be consistent with the theoretical analysis. The results are also discussed in view of the relationship among the cell growth, ion concentration and osmolarity.