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Static, Low-Frequency, and Pulsed Magnetic Fields
Chen, Qi et al. (2010) investigated whether 8.8-mT SMF can enhance the killing
potency of  cisplatin (DDP) on human leukemic cells (K562). The results showed that
SMF enhanced the anticancer effect of DDP on K562 cells, which was correlated with
enhanced DNA breakage and drug-induced cell killing. This study suggested the potential of SMF as an adjunctive treatment method for chemotherapy.
Concerning the other therapeutic effects of PEMF, Martiny, Lunde, and Bech (2010)
reported that patients with treatment-resistant depression on a PEMF (55 Hz, 1.9 mT,
2.2 mV/cm) by rTMS showed a clinically and statistically significant better outcome
than patients treated with sham PEMF, in which the onset of action was within the first
weeks of therapy. Baptista et al. (2009) reported that exposure to PEMF (72 Hz, 200 μT,
30 min/day, 5 days a week, for 3 weeks) leads to delayed histological peripheral nerve
regeneration and increased oxidative stress without any loss of function recovery.
The investigators van Bergen et al. (2009) provide evidence on the effectiveness of a
PEMF (75 Hz, 1.5 mT) in the management of osteochondral ankle lesions after arthroscopy. Dallari et al. (2009) investigated the effect of a PEMF (75 Hz, 2 mT, ≥6 h/day, for
≤90 days) in subjects undergoing hip revision using the Wagner SL stem and showed
that PEMF treatment aids clinical recovery and bone stock restoration. Ozgüçlü et al.
(2010) evaluated the effect of a PEMF (50 Hz, 3 mT) on the classical physical treatment
of knee osteoarthritis (OA) composed of hot pack, therapeutic US, and terminal isometric exercises. The results showed that PEMF does not have additional effects on the
classical physical treatment in reducing the symptoms of knee OA.
3.6 Conclusion
Over the last three decades, various studies have been carried out to examine the effects
of nonthermal magnetic fields, including TMS and MRI fields, on biological systems.
This chapter consisted of two main parts. The first part focused on recent experiments  covering topics such as magnetic sensing and behavior, cardiovascular system
responses, reproduction and development, genotoxicity, molecular and cellular systems,
and free radical and enzyme activity. The second part concentrated on the recent development of diagnostic and therapeutic applications of various magnetic fields together
with magnetic orientation for tissue engineering. As shown in this chapter, current
studies are more directed toward the development of diagnosis and therapy using biomagnetic phenomena.
With more recent and advanced applications, MEG studies have neurophysiological conditions of neural activities, and brain functions and disorders for mammals, in
particular for humans. Moreover, a comparison of the results of MRI and fMRI shows
the relationship between brain neural activities associated with BOLD effects and neural current distributions, which may lead to various new observations of dynamics in
brain function localizations. The development of new bioimaging technologies such as
current-distribution MRI and conductivity MRI, which can directly visualize electrical
activities of neurons, enables us to decipher and better understand the dynamics of brain
function. These methods have higher temporal resolution (millisecond level) compared
with conventional fMRI. The focal and vectorial TMS selectively facilitates or inhibits
neuronal activities in targeted regions or hot spots, which is useful for understanding