Low-intensity electromagnetic fields induce human cryptochrome to modulate intracellular reactive oxygen species.

Exposure to man-made electromagnetic fields (EMFs), which increasingly pollute our environment, have consequences for human health about which there is continuing ignorance and debate. Whereas there is considerable ongoing concern about their harmful effects, magnetic fields are at the same time being applied as therapeutic tools in regenerative medicine, oncology, orthopedics, and neurology. This paradox cannot be resolved until the cellular mechanisms underlying such effects are identified. Here, we show by biochemical and imaging experiments that exposure of mammalian cells to weak pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) stimulates rapid accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), a potentially toxic metabolite with multiple roles in stress response and cellular ageing. Following exposure to PEMF, cell growth is slowed, and ROS-responsive genes are induced. These effects require the presence of cryptochrome, a putative magnetosensor that synthesizes ROS. We conclude that modulation of intracellular ROS via cryptochromes represents a general response to weak EMFs, which can account for either therapeutic or pathological effects depending on exposure. Clinically, our findings provide a rationale to optimize low field magnetic stimulation for novel therapeutic applications while warning against the possibility of harmful synergistic effects with environmental agents that further increase intracellular ROS.

Neutron reflectivity studies of critical adsorption: behavior of the surface scaling function.

Neutron reflectometry has been employed to examine the nature of the critical adsorption surface scaling function for a near-critical mixture of hexane-d14+perfluorohexane adsorbing to a solid substrate from the liquid one-phase region. The analysis method of Dietrich and Schack has been applied to examine the nature of the power-law part of the critical adsorption surface scaling function, which has been found to behave as m(z) approximately P0z(-mu) as the critical point is approached. Values of mu = 0.514+/-0.018 and P0 = 0.90+/-0.04 have been obtained. These values are consistent with theoretical expectations (mu(th) = 0.516+/-0.004; P0(th) = 0.94+/-0.05), the value determined from Monte Carlo simulations (P(MC)0 = 0.866, and other experimental determinations (P(ex)0 = 0.955=/-0.08).

Adsorption from alkane+perfluoroalkane mixtures at fluorophobic and fluorophilic surfaces. II. Crossover from critical adsorption to complete wetting.

Using neutron reflectometry, adsorption from an equimolar mixture of hexane + perfluorohexane to a fluorophobic, octadecyl-coated, silicon substrate has been investigated as a function of temperature in the one-phase region upon approach to liquid-liquid coexistence. The composition of the investigated mixture, x(F) = 0.50, is well removed from the critical composition of x(F) = 0.36, where x(F) is the perfluorohexane mole fraction. To aid the modeling, mixtures with three different neutron refractive index contrasts have been used: namely, mixtures of C(6)H(14) + C(6)F(14) (H-F), C(6)D(14) + C(6)F(14) (D-F), and a mixture of C(6)H(14) + C(6)D(14) + C(6)F(14) which has been adjusted to have the same refractive index as silicon (CMSi). For all three contrasts, the principal features of the composition profile normal to the interface follow similar trends as the temperature T is reduced towards T(0), the coexistence temperature. These features consist of: (i) a hexane-rich primary adsorption layer appended to the octadecyl coupled layer. This primary layer is 22 +/- 5 A thick and becomes increasingly enriched in hexane as T(0) is approached. (ii) A tail that decays exponentially towards the bulk composition with a characteristic decay length zeta. As T(0) is approached, zeta increases. The scattering length density profiles have been converted to volume fraction profiles and the surface excess of hexane Gamma has been determined as a function of temperature for all three contrasts. As T(0) is approached Gamma increases, and its behavior can be represented using the scaling law Gamma approximately |T - T(0)|(-m). The resulting values of m are 0.71 +/- 0.09, 0.68 +/- 0.04, and 0.68 +/- 0.06 for the D-F, H-F, and CMSi contrasts, respectively. The behavior of Gamma with temperature does not adhere to the Gamma approximately |T - T(0)|(-1/3) law expected for complete wetting in systems with van der Waals interactions nor does it correspond to Gamma approximately |T - T(c)|(-0.305) expected for critical adsorption. The magnitude of the exponent m indicates that the adsorption resides in the crossover region between critical adsorption and complete wetting.