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Analysis of anisotropic diamagnetic susceptibility of a bull sperm
Author(s) -
Emura Runa,
Takeuchi Tetsuya,
Nakaoka Yasuo,
Higashi Terumasa
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
bioelectromagnetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.435
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-186X
pISSN - 0197-8462
DOI - 10.1002/bem.10109
Subject(s) - sperm , paramecium , diamagnetism , biology , cilium , motile cilium , anatomy , flagellum , physics , magnetic field , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , quantum mechanics , gene
Bull sperm and paramecium cilium were exposed to uniform static magnetic fields to observe their magnetic orientations and measure their anisotropic diamagnetic susceptibility (δχ) for each. The prepared samples were whole bull sperm, bull sperm flat heads, and paramecium cilia, because bull sperm tails in a perfect condition could not be prepared. The whole bull sperm and the bull sperm heads became oriented perpendicular to the magnetic fields (1.7 Tesla maximum), while the paramecium cilia became parallel to the magnetic fields (8 Tesla maximum). A whole bull sperm, a bull sperm head, and a paramecium cilium were photometrically studied to obtain δχ for each, which were estimated to be 1 × 10 −19 , 3 × 10 −19 , and 2 × 10 −20 J/T 2 , respectively. δχ of a sperm flagellum was estimated from the measured value of δχ of the paramecium cilium, which agrees well with the difference between δχ of the whole sperm and the sperm head. Additionally, this difference of δχ almost coincides with the δχ values calculated from δχ of tubulin, as well. If the magnetic effect on biological systems is solved and the magnetic orientation correlates with it, δχ will become the quantitative index of the effect. Bioelectromagnetics 24:347‐355, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.