title: Electromagnetic gating in ion channels.
abstract: There have been many attempts to develop a theoretical explanation of the phenomena of electromagnetic field interactions with biological systems. None of the reported efforts have been entirely successful in accounting for the observed experimental results, in particular with respect to the reports of interactions between extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields and biological systems at ion cyclotron resonance frequencies. The approach used in this paper starts with the Lorentz force equation, but use is made of cylindrical co-ordinates and cylindrical boundary conditions in an attempt to more closely model the walls of an ion channel. The equations of motion of an ion that result from this approach suggest that the inside shape of the channel plus the ELF magnetic fields at specific frequencies and amplitudes could act as a gate to control the movement of the ion across the cell membrane.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D015640:Ion Channel Gating / Q000502:physiology*; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000502:physiology; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D007473:Ion Channels