The Prospects of Electromagnetic Stimulation in Cartilage and Bone Tissue Engineering

TL;DR

Electromagnetic stimulation can boost the growth of cartilage and bone tissues by influencing stem cells and their signaling.

Contribution

This paper reviews how electromagnetic fields enhance stem cell differentiation and exosome production for tissue repair.

Findings

Electromagnetic fields stimulate osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs.

Extracellular vesicles may mediate the effects of electromagnetic stimulation, enhancing regenerative properties.

EMFs at 15 Hz and 2 mT increased chondrogenic markers in human bone-marrow MSCs.

Abstract

What are the main findings?
Electromagnetic fields stimulate cell differentiation, in particular osteogenic and chondrogenic MSC differentiation.Extracellular vesicles can be considered as mediators of electromagnetic stimulation, suggesting that electrically stimulated cells may produce exosomes with enhanced regenerative properties.

Electromagnetic fields stimulate cell differentiation, in particular osteogenic and chondrogenic MSC differentiation.

Extracellular vesicles can be considered as mediators of electromagnetic stimulation, suggesting that electrically stimulated cells may produce exosomes with enhanced regenerative properties.

What are the implications of the main findings?
Electromagnetic stimulation is a complementary or alternative tool in the classical tissue engineering triad that includes cells, scaffolds, and biochemical stimuli for increasing chondro- and osteogenesis.

Electromagnetic stimulation is a complementary or alternative tool in the classical tissue engineering triad that includes cells, scaffolds, and biochemical stimuli for increasing chondro- and osteogenesis.

The achievements of regenerative medicine are based on methods of controlling stem cell division and differentiation. Electromagnetic fields stimulate cell differentiation by means of affecting calcium channels and cellular signaling. However, only a small part of the mechanisms underlying electromagnetic field effect on cells has been studied. The prospect of their use in tissue engineering as an addition or alternative to biochemical effects becomes clear in the course of numerous experiments. Electromagnetic stimulation enhances the effect of biochemical differentiation inducers and can cause the secretion of exosomes of special properties, which may serve as a therapeutic tool. For example, it has been shown that EMFs at 15 Hz and 2 mT increased the expression of chondrogenic differentiation markers SOX9 and COL2 in human bone-marrow MSCs by up to 3-fold (based on Parate et al.). Optimizing EMF parameters (e.g., 15–50 Hz, 1–2 mT) for specific cells and pathologies remains a key challenge of the studies in the field of tissue engineering. This review describes the electromagnetic field effect on the chondrogenic and osteogenic differentiation of MSCs of various origins, which is important for the musculoskeletal tissue recovery, as well as on inflammatory diseases in model animals.

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