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 Scientific Evidence
Assisi PEMF technology summary
Assisi’s targeted pulsed electromagnetic field technologies emerge out of a century long evolution of using electrical currents to improve health and healing. Pulsed electromagnetic fields are simply delivery systems for electrical current. Pulsing an electromagnetic field near a conductor (like tissue) will induce current flow in the conductor. This simple law from physics allows currents to be induced in tissue from outside the body, without anything touching the skin (magnetic fields penetrate through bandages, casts, fur, hair, etc). Despite the many purported effects of PEMF, the simple induction of electrical current in tissue is the functional therapeutic component of PEMF technologies.
It is the effects of the induced current that are therapeutic. Historically, PEMF technologies were generally large, AC-powered devices that produced a substantial magnetic field. Even today, manufacturers of some PEMF technology describe devices in terms of “powerful” or “more powerful.” It is true that for much of the century of development, PEMF technologies did not have a specific or known biological target and the development of the technology was largely driven empirically, and greater power was somehow thought to be likely to produce better outcomes. We now know that to be incorrect. By the 1970s, clinicians developed relatively low-powered PEMF technologies to heal recalcitrant fractures (bone growth stimulators). Although effective at fracture repair and low-power, the specific mechanism of action remained elusive.
Ivivi Health Sciences, formed in 2004 and developer of the Assisi products, focused significant time and resources on elucidating a specific mechanism of action for PEMF and developing PEMF signals designed to target that mechanism. Among the potential targets purposed in the literature, work suggesting that calcium binding was a likely candidate. In particular, the binding of calcium (Ca) to calmodulin (CaM) was investigated. This particular complex is a voltage-dependent process responsible for a number of potentially therapeutic biological cascades, most importantly the natural anti-inflammatory cascade.
The Ca/CaM anti-inflammatory cascade is well-described. The initial binding of 4 calcium ions to calmodulin produces a conformational change in CaM, which, in turn, then binds to the constitutive nitric oxide synthases (both endothelial – eNOS and neuronal - nNOS), which virtually immediately (within seconds) leads to the production of nitric oxide (NO), a principal anti-inflammatory molecule. NO reduces pain, improves blood flow, edema is reduced and further triggers downstream effects, including the production of cGMP, the ‘energy’ molecule that then drives growth factor production, which, in turn, support new blood vessel formation, tissue regeneration and then, ultimately, to tissue remodeling.
Targeting the binding of Ca/CaM, properly configured PEMF signals can accelerate the binding and, in turn, accelerate all the downstream components of the natural anti-inflammatory pathway. Ivivi has developed an extensive body of work demonstrating that configuring PEMF signals differently has different effects on the anti-inflammatory cascade (some more optimal than others and still others simply ineffective). There is significant evidence that targeted PEMF accelerates the cascade, producing much greater NO, cGMP and a number of growth factors. In addition, Ivivi has been able that the effects of tPEMF can be eliminated by inhibiting the anti-inflammatory cascade at various points. The ability to target a known, voltage dependent pathway not only allowed Ivivi to demonstrate a mechanism of action, but to virtually eliminate any electromagnetic interference by configuring very low-power tPEMF devices that only deliver the current necessary to accelerate Ca/CaM binding.
Ivivi’s work demonstrates that the use of tPEMF greatly accelerates the anti-inflammatory cascade by accelerating Ca/CaM binding. The ability to inhibit downstream healing outcomes by inhibiting the pathway is further demonstration that tPEMF is operating through the Ca/CaM binding mechanism. Lastly, other PEMF signals can be characterized in effectiveness by assessing the extent to which the signals produced will couple to Ca/CaM binding.
What this means is that Assisi can bring the most effective tPEMF technology to veterinary medicine, in small, lightweight and even disposable configurations that are supported by a substantial and growing body of basic science and clinical research.
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