Affiliations: [a] Graduate School of Mechanical Engineering, Tohoku
University, Aramaki-Aoba 01, Sendai 980-8579, Japan
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Naoya Sakamoto, Department of Mechatronics
and Precision Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University,
Aramaki-Aoba 01, Sendai 980-8579, Japan. Tel./Fax: +81 22 217 6945; E-mail:
naoya@biomech.mech.tohoku.ac.jp
Abstract: The effect of magnetic field on nitric oxide (NO) production of
cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) was investigated.
Static magnetic fields (30 mT, 300 mT) and an oscillating magnetic field (30
mT, 20 Hz) were applied to HUVECs for 0.5, 1 and 6 hours and intracellular NO
was observed using a fluorescent indicator. There was no effect of the static
magnetic field on the NO production of the HUVECs. In contrast, the NO
production increased with applying the oscillating magnetic field for 0.5 hour.
However, such an increase of NO production was not observed for 1 and 6 hours.
We performed a separate experiment to clarify the mechanism of NO synthesis by
using an inhibitor of calcium-independent activation of NO synthase. The
inhibitor suppressed the increase of NO production caused by the oscillating
magnetic field. It can be concluded that oscillating magnetic field may
activate calcium-independent pathway of activation for NO synthase.
