We determined the dose-response characteristics of a low-voltage,
high-frequency, capacitively coupled electrical signal that reverses an
established osteoporosis in a rat tibial model with sciatic neurectomy. The
electrical signals were delivered by means of stainless-steel gel-coated
electrodes. In the first part of the study, the shape (sine wave) and
frequency (sixty kilohertz) of the signal were kept constant while the
voltage was varied from 0.01 to ten volts, peak to peak. Control
osteoporotic and sham osteoporotic animals showed a mean loss of tibial ash
weight of 19 and 17 per cent, respectively, twenty-eight days after sciatic
neurectomy plus twelve days of no treatment using sham electrodes. Rats
that were subjected to 0.25, 0.50, 1.0, 2.5, and 5.0 volts, peak to peak,
for twelve days beginning on the twenty-eighth day after sciatic neurectomy
all showed mean losses of tibial ash weight that were significantly less
than those of the controls. The rats that had a 0.5-volt peak-to-peak
signal showed the least mean loss of tibial ash weight (only 6 per cent).
We concluded that a capacitively coupled electrical signal, delivered
through gel-coated electrodes, can largely reverse an established disuse
osteoporosis due to neurectomy in the rat tibia. In the second part of the
study, the duty cycles of a sine-wave, sixty-kilohertz, 0.5-volt
peak-to-peak signal were varied (12.5, 50, and 100 per cent on), and the
wet, dry, and ash weights were determined and compared with those of
unstimulated osteoporotic controls. Only the 100 per cent duty-cycle signal
was effective in reversing the loss of bone mass in the neurectomized
tibiae.