Imagine a melodious song. The resonant bass or thumping beats of the tune can be felt deep within the body. While researchers know that sound waves of fluctuating pressure can travel several centimeters within bones and soft tissue, how cells in these tissues respond to the acoustic stimuli remained largely unexplored.1 Now, in a study published in Communications Biology, scientists at Kyoto University have reported that sound waves can modulate the gene expression levels in cultured mouse cells, consequently altering their behavior.2
Masahiro Kumeta, a cell biologist at Kyoto University, has been investigating the relationship between sound and cells for more than a decade. In 2018, Kumeta and his colleagues discovered that audible sound waves could modulate the expression of various mechanosensitive genes in cultured cells.3 However, the method they used to play sounds to the cells introduced confounding variables like heat and vibrations.
Kumeta wanted to know if the changes in gene expression truly corresponded to the effects of sound waves and if they translated to alterations in the cell’s behavior. So, he and his team designed an experiment wherein they played sounds of varying frequencies to mouse muscle cells growing in a dish, while minimizing the extraneous effects of acoustic stimulation, and analyzed the expression of their genes using RNA sequencing. "To investigate the effect of sound on cellular activities, we designed a system to bathe cultured cells in acoustic waves," Kumeta said in a statement. The acoustic stimulus changed the expression levels of hundreds of genes, many of them associated with functions like cell adhesion, migration, death, and neuronal signaling. Of these, one gene stood out for its elevated and stable response: prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (Ptgs2).
PTGS2 helps synthesize prostaglandins that are crucial for cell growth, inflammation, and differentiation of fat cells.4 Kumeta and his team observed that muscle cells with higher levels of Ptgs2 had a wider circumference, as compared to those that were not exposed to sound. On investigating the specific effect of sound on fat cells, the team observed a reduction in the conversion of precursor cells into differentiated fat cells. These findings could lead to the acoustic modulation of fat cell and tissue states.
"Since sound is non-material, acoustic stimulation is a tool that is non-invasive, safe, and immediate, and will likely benefit medicine and healthcare," Kumeta said.
- Suzuyama H, et al. Simulation of ultrasonically induced electrical potentials in bone. J Acoust Soc Am. 2023;154(2):1315-1323.
- Kumeta M, et al. Acoustic modulation of mechanosensitive genes and adipocyte differentiation. Commun Biol. 2025;8(1):595.
- Kumeta M, et al. Cell type-specific suppression of mechanosensitive genes by audible sound stimulation. PLOS ONE. 2018;13(1):e0188764.
- Tsuboi H, et al. Prostanoid EP4 receptor is involved in suppression of 3T3-L1 adipocyte differentiation. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2004;322(3):1066-1072.
