2021 Most Influential Bioelectromagnetics Journal Paper Award

I am pleased to announce the award for 2021 Most Influential Bioelectromagnetics Journal Paper by citation from among primary research articles published between January 2016 and December 2020. The authors of the paper are Jie Tong, Lijun Sun, Bin Zhu, Yun Fan Xingfeng Ma, Liyin Yu, and Jianbao Zhang. The paper is entitled, “Pulsed electromagnetic fields promote the proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts by reinforcing intracellular calcium transients,” which was published in Bioelectromagnetics, volume 38, no. 7, pp 541–549. October 2017 [Tong et al., 2017].

Abstract: Pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF) can be used to treat bone-related diseases, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear, especially the process by which PEMFs initiate biological effects. In this study, we demonstrated the effects of PEMF on proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts using the model of calcium transients induced by high extracellular calcium. Our results showed that PEMF can increase both the percentage of responding cells and amplitude of intracellular calcium transients induced by high extracellular calcium stimulation. Compared with corresponding extracellular calcium levels, PEMF stimulation increased proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts and related gene expressions, such as insulin-like growth factor 1, alkaline phosphatase, runt-related transcription factor 2, and osteocalcin, which can be completely abolished by BAPTA-AM. Moreover, PEMF did not affect proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts if no intracellular calcium transient was present in osteoblasts during PEMF exposure. Our results revealed that PEMF affects osteoblast proliferation and differentiation through enhanced intracellular calcium transients, which provided a cue to treat bone-related diseases with PEMF.

Each of the authors received a certificate of the award (see Figure 1) from the Bioelectromagnetics Journal during BioEM2022, the Annual BioEM Meeting held in Nagoya, Japan on June 20, 2022. A monetary prize is also associated with the award.

The Most Influential Bioelectromagnetics Journal Paper Award by citation was established in 2007 to recognize scholarly contributions to the scientific community, and to acknowledge and foster ongoing excellence in scientific discovery and achievement in its field of research endeavor.

Congratulations to all the authors.