Genes Coding for Electric Response Found

This article provides information to support the idea that electric fields play a role in guiding cells to heal wounds. Although it has been long known that wounds generate faint electric fields around the affected area, the mechanism behind how these electric fields are generated was unclear until now. Researchers in the United Kingdom were able to identify which genes were in charge of this electric response, which is known as electrotaxis. They were able to do so by tagging cells with fluorescent markers that lit up when electrical signals induced a biochemical cascade inside the cell.
Not only were they able to identify the electric field, but they were also able to find which genes encoded for this response in cells by applying electric fields to artificial wounds in cell culture dishes and real wounds in rodent corneas. By doing so they detected epithelial cells rushing towards the wound center; reversing the field caused the cells to change direction. They then disrupted a gene called p110 gamma, which releases a key chemical in chemotaxis (a chemical response). After doing so, cells did not move to the affected area in response to the applied electric field.
These findings are vey exciting because they can lead to developing more rapid, bioelectric methods to help aid wounds, virtually eliminating recovery time after a serious injury!


CHECK IT OUT! http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/726/2