High-frequency electric field and radiation characteristics of cellular microtubule network

0368054 - ÚFE 2012 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Havelka, D. - Cifra, Michal - Kučera, Ondřej - Pokorný, Jiří - Vrba, J.
High-frequency electric field and radiation characteristics of cellular microtubule network.
Journal of Theoretical Biology. Roč. 286, 7/10/2011 (2011), 31-40. ISSN 0022-5193. E-ISSN 1095-8541
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP102/11/0649; GA ČR GPP102/10/P454
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z20670512
Keywords : cellular power * bioelectrodynamics * microtubulenetwork
Subject RIV: JA - Electronics ; Optoelectronics, Electrical Engineering
Impact factor: 2.208, year: 2011

Microtubules are important structures in the cytoskeleton, which organizes the cell. Since microtubules are electrically polar, certain microtubule normal vibration modes efficiently generate oscillating electric field. This oscillating field may be important for the intracellular organization and intercellular interaction. There are experiments which indicate electrodynamic activity of variety of cells in the frequency region from kHz to GHz, expecting the microtubules to be the source of this activity. In this paper, results from the calculation of intensity of electric field and of radiated electromagnetic power from the whole cellular microtubule network are presented. The subunits of microtubule (tubulin heterodimers) are approximated by elementary electric dipoles. Mechanical oscillation of microtubule is represented by the spatial function which modulates the dipole moment of subunits.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0202523