What is it about?
The directional movement of cells was traditionally believed to be available only under direct current electric field (DCEF). We have shown that under pulsed DCEF (pDCEF), and bipolar pulse electric field (bpEF), the cells also move in one direction. Rather, in some cases, the cells under pDCEFs and bpEFs move better.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that DCEF is not the premises of the galvanotaxis (the phenomenon of the cells moving in one directional under electric fields). It's consistent with the clinical studies where non-DCEF is used to increase the cell movement in order to cure the wounds.
Perspectives
I think electric pulses can also trigger directional movement of the cells, and the factor that determines the direction of the cells under an electric fields is the "net charge" direction in its repetitive period. I believe this article is intriguing for clinicians of wound healing, for there are lots of pDCEFs and bpEFs parameters to give it a try, and for researchers of basic science, for the mechanism underpins it is worth investigating.
Ying Li
Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Institute of Biomedical Engineering
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Electric Pulses Can Influence Galvanotaxis of Dictyostelium discoideum, BioMed Research International, August 2018, Hindawi Publishing Corporation,
DOI: 10.1155/2018/2534625.
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