Effects of PEMFs-ELFs (Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields-Extremely Low Frequencies) on morfology and differentiation of C2C12 mouse myoblast cell line

F. Sereni, F. Cialdai, M. Monici
Energy for Health [10], 2013

An increasing number of reports shows the ability of ELF-PEMFs to change the behavior of cells and evoke biological responses. Therefore, the interest on the use of ELF-PEMFs in clinics is increasing and new fields of application are explored, in addition to the well-established application in the treatment of bone diseases. However, our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the clinical observations is still lacking. A better knowledge is required to improve the clinical applications and treatment parameters.
The aim of this study was to analyze ELF-PEMFs (50Hz, 2mT) effect on a myoblast model (C2C12 cell line) through morphological and molecular assays. This cell line is a well-characterized model to study muscle cell differentiation and tissue repair. To assess the effect of treatment time on the biological response we used two different time of stimulation: 15 minutes (short-treatment) and 3 hours (long-treatment). The samples were analyzed immediately after the treatment and 24 h, 72 h, 6 days later. Viability and proliferation were assessed by MTT assay.
Morphology and cytoskeleton organization were analyzed by immunofluorescence microscopy. The effect of ELF-PEMFs on myoblast differentiation was investigated by analyzing the expression of markers typically expressed during myogenesis: MyoD, myogenin and MHC.
After both the treatments we found a weak decrease in proliferation but no effects on cell viability. The network of microfilaments and microtubules changed, especially after 3 h exposure to ELF-PEMFs. The expression of myogenesis markers increased and the translocation of the transcription factor MyoD to the myoblasts nucleus was observed. In conclusion the results showed that ELFPEMFs are able to induce in the myoblast model a biological response consisting in cytoskeleton remodelling and increase in expression of myogenesis markers. The effect depended on the exposure time.