Bahrami Abasalt, Tanaka Leonardo Y, Massucatto Ricardo C, Laurindo Francisco R M, Aiello Clarice D
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
Vascular Biology Laboratory, Heart Institute (InCor), University of São Paulo School of Medicine, São Paulo, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 5;20(8):e0321133. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321133. eCollection 2025.
Evidence of the biological impacts of weak magnetic fields have been reported for more than fifty years. However, research progress on such effects has been hampered by a lack of systematics in most experiments. Efforts to increase the systematics in such cell biology experiments must include the capability of producing fields that can be automatically adjusted and that are stable throughout an experiment's duration, usually operating inside an incubator. Here, we report on the design of a fully automated 1D Helmholtz coil setup that is internally water cooled, thus eliminating any confounding effects caused by temperature fluctuations. The coils also allow cells to be exposed to magnetic fields from multiple directions through automated controlled rotation. Preliminary data, acquired with the coils placed inside an incubator and on a rat vascular smooth muscle cell line, confirm previous reports that both microtubule and actin polymerization and dynamics are altered by weak magnetic fields.
关于弱磁场生物影响的证据已有五十多年的报道。然而，大多数实验缺乏系统性，阻碍了对此类效应的研究进展。在这种细胞生物学实验中提高系统性的努力必须包括能够产生可自动调节且在整个实验过程中保持稳定的磁场的能力，通常在培养箱内运行。在此，我们报告一种全自动化的一维亥姆霍兹线圈装置的设计，该装置内部水冷，从而消除了温度波动引起的任何混杂效应。这些线圈还允许细胞通过自动控制的旋转从多个方向暴露于磁场中。将线圈置于培养箱内并作用于大鼠血管平滑肌细胞系所获得的初步数据证实了先前的报道，即弱磁场会改变微管和肌动蛋白的聚合及动力学。
