Poster #089, UC Davis Health System
Directed Migration of Microglia Cells in Response to Direct Current Electric Fields
Mentor: Kan Zhu, PHD
Microglia-driven chronic neuroinflammation is a central hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). While AD brains have altered bioelectrical signals that can serve as guidance cues for cell behavior, how microglia respond to these electrical inputs remain unclear. This project revolves around Electrotaxis, a biological process where cells move in a certain direction in response to an electric field (Zhao et al., 2006). The project looks at whether an artificial electric field guides the movement of Microglia cells. Two groups of 81 cells were tracked consisting of a control group and a group exposed to electric fields. The total distance and Euclidean distance were measured alongside its velocity and migration efficiency. Although cells in both conditions had winding pathways and no major significant difference in velocity (84 μm/h in EF vs. 81 μm/h in control), EF exposure still slightly improved overall migration efficiency. Despite these minor differences in speed and efficiency, the EF exerted a pronounced effect on directional migration. Cells exposed to the EF demonstrated a distinct shift in average endpoint position along the X axis (-1.45) compared to control cells (15.19). This directional shift was statistically significant (p = 0.021). Overall, this data shows that even though an electric field did not significantly speed up cell migration, it still had an influence on its direction and positioning. These results also prove the hypothesis that electric fields can help guide the cell migration of human cells, showing a potential for targeted in vivo electrical stimulation to help modulate neuroinflammation and cell movement in Alzheimer’s disease.