Paper detail

Instant Response of Live HeLa Cells to Static Magnetic Field and Its Magnetic Adaptation

We report Static Magnetic Field (SMF) induced altered sub-cellular streaming, which retains even after withdrawal of the field. The observation is statistically validated by differential fluorescence recovery after photo-bleaching (FRAP) studies in presence and absence of SMF, recovery rate being higher in presence of SMF. This instant magneto-sensing by live cells can be explained by inherent diamagnetic susceptibility of cells and alternatively by spin recombination, e.g., by the radical pair mechanism. These arguments are however insufficient to explain the retention of the SMF effect even after field withdrawal. Typically, a relaxation time scale at least of the order of minutes is observed. This long duration of the SMF effect can be explained postulating a field induced coherence that is followed by decoherence after the field withdrawal. A related observation is the emergence of enhanced magnetic susceptibility of cells after magnetic pre-incubation. This implies onset of a new spin equilibrium state as a result of prolonged SMF incubation. Lastly, translation of such altered spin states to a cellular signal that leads to an altered sub-cellular streaming, probable intracellular machineries for this translation being discussed in the text.