Electric Fields at Breast Cancer and Cancer Cell Collective Galvanotaxis


" In the present study, we measured the endogenous EFs at breast cancer allografts ex vivo using a non-invasive vibrating probe and glass microelectrode. We demonstrated that the EFs naturally exist at the tumor surface, the direction and magnitude of these currents are inhomogeneous which may be due to the heterogeneity of local tumor tissue. We further tested the galvanotactic responses of the breast cancer cell line and its metastatic sublines in EFs of physiological strength and found that weak applied EFs induced significant collective migration of 4T1 cells, and the metastatic sublines showed different galvanotaxis threshold with some subtle differences." {Credits 1}

" In this study, we detected electric currents of 0–10 μA/cm2 around a tumor, which is comparable to the measurements in corneal or skin wounds of experimental animal models [15,34]. Both outward and inward currents could be detected. We also used glass microelectrode to detect the ITP difference at tumors, and an EF of 30-465 mV/mm was detected. One could predict that these EFs exist within tumors and between cancerous and normal tissues, thus one or more electrical circuits may exist." {Credits 1}

{Credits 1} 🎪 Zhu, K., Hum, N.R., Reid, B. et al. Electric Fields at Breast Cancer and Cancer Cell Collective Galvanotaxis. Sci Rep 10, 8712 (2020). © 2020 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.


Last modified on 30-May-20

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