Electrotaxis, also known as galvanotaxis, is the directed motion of biological cells or organisms guided by an electric field or current.
[8] Additional research has been conducted into how applied electric fields impact cancer metastasis, morphogenesis, neuron guidance, motility of pathogenic bacteria, biofilm formation, and many other biological phenomena.
[13] Dineur used a zinc–copper cell to apply a constant current to the abdominal cavity of a frog via a pair of platinum electrodes.
Since these pioneering studies, a variety of different cell types and organisms have been shown to respond to electric fields.
Some studies have indicated that certain organisms move passively without any specific sensing mechanisms applied to alter active motility.
[14][15] In a sufficiently strong electric field, small cells may move as uniformly charged particles[16] or dipoles.
For now, it is thought that redistribution of membrane-bound sensors dragged by Coulombic forces and electro-osmosis at the membrane would cause the cell to polarize, then migrate.
[24] However, multiple explanations have been investigated, resulting in a considerable body of evidence and a limited understanding of how cells migrate using electric fields.
In chemotaxis, Src and Akt are polarized by phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase-γ (PI(3)Kγ) activation and inhibition of phosphate tensin homolog (PTEN).
Similarly, genetic disruption of PTEN resulted in increased phosphorylation of ERK and Akt and a greater electrotaxic response.
This process is coordinated largely by chemical signals, but there is evidence that electrotaxis plays an additional role in directing specific cell types toward the site of an injury.
[26] During the proliferation phase of recovery, keratinocytes move toward the cathodal side of the EFs occurring around and injury, bringing them toward the edge of the wound.
In fact, in vitro experimentation found that application of physiological strength EFs could override other signals and guide cells to migrate towards or even away from a wound depending on the direction of the field, regardless of chemical factors.