In an in vitro tendon cell model, the tendon-specific gene expression up-regulation induced by PEMF negatively correlates with field intensity; moreover repeated lower-intensity PEMF treatments (1.5 mT) provokes a higher release of anti-inflammatory cytokines respect to the single treatment. Tendon disorders represent a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for physicians. Traditional treatments are characterised by a long recovery time and a high occurrence of injury relapses. Despite the growing clinical interest in pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) few studies on their effect on tendons and ligaments have been conducted. Tendon resident cells (TCs) are a mixed population, made up mostly by tenocytes and tendon stem/progenitor cells, which are responsible of the tissue homeostasis. Since studies on the effect of PEMFs on this cell population are conflicting, we evaluated the possible relation between PEMFs dosage and TCs’ response. In particular, we compared the in vitro effect of low and high PEMFs on TCs (PEMF-1.5 mT; PEMF-3 mT); moreover we assessed the results of repeated treatments (R-PEMF-1.5mT).Summary
Introduction
