An In Vitro Chondrocyte Electrical Stimulation Framework: A Methodology to Calculate Electric Fields and Modulate Proliferation, Cell Death and Glycosaminoglycan Synthesis

Electric fields (EFs) have been used as external biophysical stimuli to increase cell population and stimulate the molecular synthesis of chondrocytes. However, in the methodology reported by different researchers there is no evidence about the procedure to calculate EFs. This work presents a new framework to calculate EFs and modulate proliferation, cell death and glycosaminoglycan synthesis. For this study, we used a computational analysis, by a finite elements method for experimental setting, to find the dielectric constants of the cell culture medium and the experimental geometrical configuration. Chondrocytes were stimulated with EFs of 4 and 8 mV/cm, and for each of these EFs, three exposure times were tested (30 min, 1 and 5 h). We observed an increment in cell population when an electric field of 4 mV/cm was applied during 30 min. The glycosaminoglycan synthesis remained stable after an electric field of 8 mV/cm was applied during 5 h. No changes in cell population and molecular synthesis were perceived when EFs were applied during 1 h. This approach is a promising tool that could be used to enhance in vitro procedures in order to obtain well-characterized chondrocyte cell cultures either by increasing cell proliferation or stimulating molecular synthesis.