Electrically stimulated gene expression under exogenously applied electric fields

Sara Abasi; Abhishek Jain; John P Cooke; Anthony Guiseppi-Elie

doi:10.3389/fmolb.2023.1161191

Electrically stimulated gene expression under exogenously applied electric fields

Front Mol Biosci. 2023 May 4:10:1161191. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1161191. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Sara Abasi¹, Abhishek Jain^{1

2

3}, John P Cooke², Anthony Guiseppi-Elie^{1

2

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Bioelectronics, Biosensors and Biochips (C3B), Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States.
² Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, Houston Methodist Institute for Academic Medicine and Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, United States.
³ Department of Medical Physiology, College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Bryan, TX, United States.
⁴ Division of Engineering and Industrial Technology, Tri-County Technical College, Pendleton, SC, United States.
⁵ ABTECH Scientific, Inc., Richmond, VA, United States.

Abstract

Introduction: Electrical stimulation, the application of an electric field to cells and tissues grown in culture to accelerate growth and tight junction formation among endothelial cells, could be impactful in cardiovascular tissue engineering, allotransplantation, and wound healing. Methods: Using Electrical Cell Stimulation And Recording Apparatus (ECSARA), the exploration of the stimulatory influences of electric fields of different magnitude and frequencies on growth and proliferation, trans endothelial electrical resistance (TEER) and gene expression of human endothelia cells (HUVECs) were explored. Results: Within the range of endogenous electrical pulses studied, frequency was found to be more significant (p = 0.05) than voltage in influencing HUVEC gene expression. Localization of Yes Associated Protein (YAP) and expression of CD-144 are shown to be consistent with temporal manifestations of TEER. Discussion: This work introduces the field of electromics, the study of cellular gene expression profiles and their implications under the influence of exogenously applied electric fields. Homology of electrobiology and mechanobiology suggests use of such exogenous cues in tissue and regenerative engineering.

Keywords: CD-144; ECSARA; HUVEC; TEER; YAP; electromics.

Grants and funding

This work is partially supported by the NASA, BARDA, NIH, and USFDA, under Contract No. 80ARC023CA002; NHLBI of NIH under Award Number R01HL157790, NSF CAREER Award number 1944322, and Texas A&M University President’s Excellence in Research Award (X-Grant) to AJ.