Electric field stimulation can increase protein synthesis in articular cartilage explants

It has been hypothesized that the electric fields associated with the dynamic loading of cartilage may affect its growth, remodeling, and biosynthesis. While the application of exogenous fields has been shown to modulate cartilage biosynthesis, it is not known what range of field magnitudes and frequencies can alter biosynthesis and how they relate to the magnitudes and frequencies of endogenous fields. Such information is necessary to understand and identify mechanisms by which fields may act on cartilage metabolism. In this study, incorporation of 35S-methionine was used as a marker for electric field-induced changes in chondrocyte protein synthesis in disks of cartilage from the femoropatellar groove of 1 to 2-week-old calves. The cartilage was stimulated sinusoidally at 1, 10, 100, 10(3), and 10(4) Hz with current densities of 10-30 mA/cm2. Incorporation was assessed in control disks maintained in the absence of applied current at 37, 41, and 43 degrees C. The possibility that applied currents would induce synthesis of the same stress proteins that are caused by heating or other mechanisms was assessed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and examination of gel fluorographs. Total radiolabel incorporation in cartilage that had been stimulated relative to incorporation in the controls increased with current density magnitudes greater than 10 mA/cm2. The increase was greatest at 100 Hz and 1 kHz, and it depended on the position on the joint surface from which the cartilage samples were taken. Together, these results suggest that endogenous electric fields could affect cartilage biosynthesis. Stress proteins were not induced at any current density when the electrodes were electrically connected but chemically isolated from the media by agarose bridges. Stress proteins were observed for disks incubated at temperatures greater than 39 degrees C (no field) and when the stimulating platinum electrodes were in direct contact with the media bathing the cartilage disks. Therefore, the increase in incorporation of 35S-methionine due to applied fields with the use of chemically isolated electrodes did not appear to be associated with stress response.