Pilot study assessing the impact of platelet activation electric stimulation protocols on hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell proliferation

Recent research has shown that pulsed electric fields can successfully activate platelets ex-vivo; activation means here the release of growth factors and clotting. Typically, platelets are in a complex biological matrix, such as platelet rich plasma (PRP), which contains a variety of cell types. While specific electric pulses can activate the platelets, the impact of electric simulation on other cell types is an open question. The pilot study presented here focuses on evaluating electric pulse effects on hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells when they are in a complex biological matrix also containing platelets. Experimental results indicate that stem cell proliferation at two weeks post treatment can be tuned as a function of electrical parameters. We demonstrate in this pilot study that stem cell proliferation can be either low (via conductive coupling, 8.5 kV/cm electric field amplitude) or high (via capacitive coupling, 2.5 kV/cm electric field amplitude) two weeks after stimulation, despite these two electric pulse delivery mechanisms inducing roughly similar growth factor release and immediate cell viability post treatment. These observations may open up additional ways of tuning electric pulse delivery for platelet activation and other biomedical applications.