Millimeter wave treatment inhibits the mitochondrion-dependent apoptosis pathway in chondrocytes

• 作 者: GuangwenWu[1]ThomasSferra[2]XuzhengChen[1]YouqinChen[2]MingxiaWu[1]HuifengXu[3]JunPeng[1]XianxiangLiu[1]
• 机 构: Academy of Integrative Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350108. C
• 出 处: 第七次全国中西医结合基础理论研究学术研讨会
• 发表日期: 2011年期

　　Millimeter wave (MW) is an electromagnetic wave with a wavelength between 1 and 10 mm and a frequency of 30～300 GHz that can evoke multiple biological effects, both locally and globally. MW has been broadly used in clinical medicine. Although our previous work demonstrated that MW can inhibit sodium nitroprussiate (SNP)-induced apoptosis in chondrocytes, the precise mechanism of the anti-apoptotic activity remains to be elucidated.In this report, we investigated the cellular effects of MW in 5NP-induced apoptotic chondrocytes. We found that MW treatment could inhibit an SNP-induced mitochondrion-dependent pathway of apoptosis. MW treatment inhibited the loss of plasma membrane asymmetry(externalization of phosphatidylserine)，collapse of mitochondria) membrane potential，and activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3.Taken together, these results suggest that MW inhibits the mitochondrion-dependent pathway of apoptosis in chondrocytes and this may, in part，explain its clinical effect in the treatment of osteoarthritis.