Measuring Cellular Ion Transport by Magnetoencephalography

" The cellular-level process of ion transport is known to generate a magnetic field. A noninvasive magnetoencephalography (MEG) technique was used to measure the magnetic field emanating from HeLa, HEK293, and H9c2(2-1) rat cardiac cells ... These signals confirmed that the measured MEG signals are due to cellular ion transport through the cell membrane. In general, there is evidence that ion channel/transporter activation and ionic flux are linked to cancer." {Credits 1}

The range of the magnetic field intensities detected is in the order of 1 to 100 pT.

" It is interesting to observe that the nondifferentiated H9c2(2-1) rat cardiac myoblasts and the differentiated myocytes showed a significant difference in their magnetic signatures. The characteristic frequency of 27.8 Hz for the myoblasts was found to be identical to that of HeLa cells, which is a cancer cell line. The differentiated cell lines showed a cluster of higher characteristic frequencies of around 220 Hz. It is speculated that each of the three frequencies in the cluster is attributable to a specific ionic flux. One could then infer that the ion channel-gating dynamics of nondifferentiated cell lines are nondistinct, which is a key factor affecting cellular homeostasis." {Credits 1}

{Credits 1} 🎪 Sharma, S. K., Vijay, S., Gore, S., Dore, T. M., & Jagannathan, R. (2020). Measuring Cellular Ion Transport by Magnetoencephalography. ACS Omega. This work is licensed under an ACS AuthorChoice License. This is an unofficial adaptation of an article that appeared in an ACS publication. ACS has not endorsed the content of this adaptation or the context of its use.