Electromagnetic cellular interactions

Michal Cifra, Jeremy Z. Fields, Ashkan Farhadi
2011 Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology  
Chemical and electrical interaction within and between cells is well established. Just the opposite is true about cellular interactions via other physical fields. The most probable candidate for an other form of cellular interaction is the electromagnetic field. We review theories and experiments on how cells can generate and detect electromagnetic fields generally, and if the cell-generated electromagnetic field can mediate cellular interactions. We do not limit here ourselves to specialized
more » ... ectro-excitable cells. Rather we describe physical processes that are of a more general nature and probably present in almost every type of living cell. The spectral range included is broad; from kHz to the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. We show that there is a rather large number of theories on how cells can generate and detect electromagnetic fields and discuss experimental evidence on electromagnetic cellular interactions in the modern scientific literature. Although small, it is continuously accumulating.
doi:10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2010.07.003 pmid:20674588 fatcat:pumd653q2rdsnos464elwmdc2i