Embryonic Stem Cells Have Electrical Properties

Embryonic Stem Cells Have Electrical Properties

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have discovered that stem cells can conduct electricity. The press release can be found at EurekAlert. Ronald A. Li, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and senior author of the study, said, “Our discovery of functional ion channels, which are valves in a cell's outer membrane allowing the passage of charged atoms, the basis of electricity, provides an important link to the differentiation, or maturation, and cell proliferation, or growth of human ESCs.”

The membrane voltage of many types of cells, including some cancer cells, is altered by potassium. The researchers in this study measured the electric currents of single human ESCs, discovered several channels that allow and control passage of potassium, and observed the electric current's effect on cell differentiation and proliferation. The hope is that targeting specific potassium channels can prevent ESCs from becoming cancerous.

A short UPI version of the story is available at Science Daily, among others. The research was first published online in the journal Stem Cells on August 9, 2005 (“Electrophysiological properties of pluripotent human and mouse embryonic stem cells”) so it is unclear to me why the press release was issued now, more than 2 months later. At any rate, this seems like a promising avenue of research.