Electrically-enhanced proliferation control in adult human mesenchymal stem cells

This paper represents a study on the effect of electrical pulses on adult stem cells, especially on proliferation control and also as a method of delivering molecules inside the cytoplasm. Mesenchymal stem cells have been targeted for this study primarily because of their ability to home towards tumor cells, making the possibility to generate targeted tumor therapy more realistic. Human adult bone marrow stem cells were subjected to high intensity, short duration (1200 V/cm, 100 ¿s) and low intensity, long duration (200 V/cm, 500 V/cm, 10 and 20 ms) pulses. The effect of these voltages on the viability and proliferation ability of these cells in the presence and absence of Bleomycin (a chemodrug used in the treatment of various types of tumors) hint at the possibility of extrapolation of this technique to effective electrochemotherapy using the mesenchymal stem cells as a ´Trojan horse´ and to control the proliferation ability of cancer cells.