Effect of static magnetic field on cell migration

The effect of a magnetic field on cells has long been investigated, but there are few quantitative investigations of the migration of cells. Cell migration is important as one of the fundamental activities of the cell. This study proposes a method to evaluate quantitatively the cell diffusion constant and the effect of a static magnetic field on cell migration. The cell lines are neuroblastoma (NG108-15), fibroblastoma (NIH/3T3), and osteoblastoma (MC3T3-E1). The static magnetic field of 30 or 120 mT is impressed by a permanent magnet in a vertical or horizontal direction to the dish. It is shown that the cell diffusion constant can represent the cell migration as the cell activity. It is found that the cell migration is enhanced by exposure to the magnetic field, depending on the kind of cell. It is conjectured that the static magnetic field affects cell migration, which is downstream of the information transmission. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.