Electromagnetic investigation of neuron growth by using pulsed electromagnetic field stimulation

Abstract

Electromagnetic field (EMF) applications for humans have been widely used for medical therapy for a long time. Various nerve diseases such as complex regional pain syndrome, cerebral palsy and spinal cord injuries may occur as a result of damage on the nerve cells. In addition, EMF applications are taken into consideration in terms of tissue regeneration. The use of electricity for nerve regeneration is applied internally or externally. The use of direct current (DC) electric fields to stimulate axon elongation and nerve regeneration in nerve cells has been applied in various studies. In our study, electromagnetic field was used for the controlled and directional growth of Dorsal Root Ganglia (DRG) nerve cells. An amplifier circuit, which can produce amplified signals to generate proposed pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF) is designed. The electromagnetic field is produced on FR-4 copper plate, which highlights electrical field unlike previous studies, since there is no circular coil structure preferred. The elongation of nerve cells is planned to be in one direction, hence the signal to be applied is produced as a novel asymmetrical waveform (sawtooth) in addition to triangular and square waveforms which were previously preferred in recent studies. By the aid of proposed novel construction and produced signal waveform, PEMF system can be applied for nerve diseases effectively. The morphological nerve cell elongation results and PEMF results have been investigated and the effectiveness of the proposed system is verified.