Scientists found strong static magnetic fields can safely relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression in mice. They believe that elevated static magnetic fields have the potential to be an antidepressant treatment in the future.
Scientists have recently conducted a series of studies to test the biosafety and neurobehavioral effects of 33.0 Tesla high static magnetic fields (SMFs) using the Steady High Magnetic Field Facility’s (SHMFF) self-designed biological research platform ). The experiments were carried out by Professor Xin Zhang’s team at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
They, for the first time, reported the biosafety of SMF at 30 Tesla and the neurobehavioral effects of SMF at 20 Tesla and 30 Tesla in healthy mice in the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and European Radiology.
In recent years, ultra-high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has developed rapidly due to its significant advantage of high image resolution. 7 Tesla MRI has been clinically approved and 21.1 Tesla MRI has been successfully used in rodents. However, biosafety studies of high magnetic fields above 20 Tesla are still scarce, and there is still a gap in relevant studies above 30 Tesla.
Based on the previous biosafety study of 3.5-23.0 Tesla SMF, Xin Zhang’s group further increased the magnetic field intensity and shortened the exposure time. Healthy C57BL/6J mice were exposed to 7.0-33.0 Tesla SMF for one hour.
Experiments performed with SHMFF. Credit: Yue Lyu
After exposure, all mice were fed normally for two months. Except for some indicators of metabolic and liver and hepatorenal function affected by the magnetic field, the total blood count and the organ coefficient of the histomorphology of the major organs were not seriously affected, most of the mice remained within the normal reference range.
Meanwhile, behavioral tests showed that high SMF alleviated anxiety and improved social and spatial memory in mice two months after exposure.
Additionally, behavioral studies of healthy mice exposed to a magnetic field of 3.5-23.0 Tesla for two hours also found enhanced neurocognitive effects, which may be associated with increased protein kinase expression Calcium/calmodulin-dependent II in mouse hippocampus.
Zhang’s group also found that 7 Tesla SMF could effectively relieve the symptoms of depressed mice. These results not only provide useful safety information for the development of ultrahigh MRI, but may also indicate that high SMF has the potential to be a future antidepressant treatment.
Reference: “Short- and long-term effects of 3.5-23.0 Tesla ultra-high magnetic fields on the behavior of mice” by Md Hasanuzzaman Khan, Xinfeng Huang, Xiaofei Tian, Changjie Ouyang, Dongmei Wang, Shuang Feng, Jutao Chen, Tian Xue, Jin Bao, and Xin Zhang, March 16, 2022, European Radiology.DOI: 10.1007/s00330-022-08677-8
This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the President’s Fund of Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, etc.