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Updated: Jun 19, 2026
Construction and Use of an Electrical Stimulation Chamber for Enhancing Osteogenic Differentiation in Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells In Vitro
Published on: January 31, 2019
Pulsed electromagnetic fields accelerate proliferation and osteogenic gene expression in human bone marrow
Li-Yi Sun1, Dean-Kuo Hsieh, Po-Cheng Lin
1Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University, No. 75 Po-Ai Street, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC.
Abstract:
Osteogenesis is a complex series of events involving the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells to generate new bone. In this study, we examined the effect of pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) on cell proliferation, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, mineralization of the extracellular matrix, and gene expression in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) during osteogenic differentiation. Exposure of BMMSCs to PEMFs increased cell proliferation by 29.6% compared to untreated cells at day 1 of differentiation. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR indicated that PEMFs significantly altered temporal expression of osteogenesis-related genes, including a 2.7-fold increase in expression of the key osteogenesis regulatory gene cbfa1, compared to untreated controls. In addition, exposure to PEMFs significantly increased ALP expression during the early stages of osteogenesis and substantially enhanced mineralization near the midpoint of osteogenesis. These results suggest that PEMFs enhance early cell proliferation in BMMSC-mediated osteogenesis, and accelerate the osteogenesis.
