Revisiting the mitogenetic effect of ultra-weak photon emission

This paper reviews the 90 years long controversial history of the so-called “mitogenetic radiation,” the first case of non-chemical distant interactions, reported by Gurwitsch (1923). It was soon described as ultraweak UV, emitted by a number of biological systems, and stimulating mitosis in “competent” (in this sense) cells. In the following 20 years this phenomenon attracted enormous interest of the scientific community, and gave rise to more than 700 publications around the world. Yet, this wave of research vanished after several ostensibly disproving works in late 1930-s, and was not resumed later, regardless of quite serious grounds for that. The authors discuss separately two aspects of the problem: (1) do living organisms emit ultraweak radiation in the UV range (irrespective of whether it has any biological role), and (2) are there any real effects of this ultraweak photon emission (UPE) upon cell division and/or other biological functions? Analysis of the available data permits to conclude, that UV fraction of UPE should be regarded real, while its biological effects are difficult to reproduce. This causes a paradox. A number of presently known qualities of UPE were initially discovered (predicted?) by the “early workers” on the basis of biological effects. Yet the qualities they discovered were proved later (the UV component of UPE, the sources of UPE among biological systems, etc…), while the biological effect they used for UPE “detection” remains questionable. Importance of this area for basic biology and medicine, and potential usefulness of UPE as a non-invasive research method, invite scientists to attack this problem again, applying powerful research facilities of modern science.

Yet, because of complexity and uncertainty of the problem, further progress in this area demands comprehensive examination of both positive and negative works, with particular attention to their methodical details.

Investigation of both ultraweak photon emission (UPE) and non-chemical distant interactions (NCDI) in living mater was started in 1920-s by a well-known Russian histologist Alexander Gurwitsch (1874–1954). His research was an attempt to answer a question, not responded in its full scale even now: “what are the causes of cell division?” Combining several observations, Gurwitsch concluded that this event required a coincidence of two factors: (1) internal cell “preparedness” to division, and (2) external impulse, i.e., a signal coming from the outside and “switching on” the (already prepared) mitosis. He suggested, that the external impulse was non-chemical (i.e., a kind of radiation), and induced “collective excitation” of special molecular receptors located on the cell surface. [Mark that the notion of membrane receptors became widely used only several decades later. See original works (Gurwitsch, 1911, 1923), and their discussion in Bateman (1935); Gurwitsch (1988); Van Wijk (2014).

To test the hypothesis of the “non-chemical external impulse,” Gurwitsch performed his famous “onion root experiment” (Gurwitsch, 1923). Two onion roots as even and smooth as possible were located perpendicular to each other and mutually centered, so that the tip of root No1 (acting as the “emitter” of the “impulse”) was directed toward the division zone of root No2 (acting as the “recipient”). The authors made histological sections of the “recipient” root, and calculated the number of mitotic figures in the exposed and non-exposed halves of the root. The exposed side possessed significantly higher proportion of cells in mitosis than the non-exposed side (see more in Section MGE on Plant Meristem). This phenomenon was called “mitogenetic effect” (MGE).

MGE was also detected, if a quartz plate was fixed between the two roots, and was not detected, if the roots were separated with glass or nontransparent materials (Gurwitsch, 1924; Reiter and Gabor, 1928a). Chemical isolation of the roots did not affect the results. Based on these and other data (see more in Section Physical Qualities of Mitogenetic Radiation), the acting factor was concluded to be UV light of very low intensity, and was called “mitogenetic radiation.”

The phenomenon was soon shown widely spread in the living nature. A summary of possible inductors and recipients, as well as the conditions necessary for observing MGE, will be given in Section Definitions. Some of the most important critical works on this subject will be reviewed in Sections MGE on Plant Meristem and MGE on Yeast and Bacteria. Although MGE appeared quite capricious, once a stable effect was obtained, it could be used as a standard “detector” of mitogenetic radiation. The latter was soon found a sensitive and absolutely non-invasive marker of the physiological state of its emitter. A number of laboratories (Profs. Gurwitsch, Blacher and Pesochensky in the USSR, Prof. Siebert in Germany, Prof. Wolf in the Netherlands, Prof. Rahn in the USA) that obtained stable “basic MGE,” used it for further research and clinical diagnostics (see Section MGE as a Non-invasive Probe for Detecting Physiological and Pathological States of Cells and Tissues).

The mechanism of MGE became the central research question from the very beginning. The very first works on this problem already contained evidences, that the inducing factor was non-chemical, and “behaved” like UPE in UV spectral range (see Section Physical Qualities of Mitogenetic Radiation). This was soon followed by attempts to detect it with physical light-sensitive devices—photographic plates, modified Geiger counters, and finally PMTs (described in detail in Sections Photon Emission from MGE Inductors and partially in Newer Works on UPE). From early 60-s research on UPE from biological systems gradually spread around the world (briefly reviewed in Section Newer Works on UPE), and UPE became a well-established phenomenon.

Yet, it is not a triumph of MGE. Mitogenetic radiation (if existing) is by convention a signal, stimulating cell division. UPE is a side effect of radical oxidative processes with no biological roles, except a way to “get rid” of potentially dangerous energy surplus. Mitogenetic radiation should belong to UV range (190–240 nm). UPE is mostly visible. Yet, the first works on UPE originated from the problem of MGE, and a number of UPE qualities had been discovered in mitogenetic experiments. Can this be a coincidence? I.e., can the “early works” on UPE-MGE have been a big fallacy, that “predicted” UPE only extrinsically? Although this is the viewpoint of a number of influential authors (Zhuravlev, 1973; Quickenden and Tilbury, 1985; Vladimirov and Proskurnina, 2009), we consider it a personal opinion, based on belief, but not on evidences.

The total number of works on MGE is more than a thousand, including those in top rating journals (e.g., at least 10 articles in Nature), and those by well-known and respectable scientists [e.g., Profs. Rahn (USA), Wolf (Holland), Reiter, Gabor (Germany), Gurwitsch, Frank, Chariton, Pesochensky (USSR)].

In the vast majority of those works, MGE was detected. The number of works “disproving” MGE was less than 20. All the “disproving” works we could obtain, were done with principal deviations from the conditions, necessary to get MGE. We will separately discuss this point for each of them in Sections MGE on Plant Meristem, MGE on Yeast and Bacteria, Photon Emission from MGE Inductors, and Imitation of MGE with Artificial Sources of UPE. Thus, no work by this time ever refuted MGE as a phenomenon.

Presently, UV component of UPE can be regarded proven (Troitskii et al., 1961; Gurwitsch et al., 1965; Tilbury and Quickenden, 1988). It coincides with mitogenetic radiation in spectral range and the culture growth phase, when it is observed. The sources of the UV component are definitely different from those of visible UPE in biological systems. These, as well as some other facts will be discussed in Section Newer Works on UPE and Discussion.

Still, MGE is not well established either. The reasons for that will be discussed in detail in Section Discussion, but probably the main one is capriciousness and uncertainty of the effect. We consider it an intrinsic property of the phenomenon, which demand scrupulousness in details to obtain good reproducible results.

Thus, we reckon the problem of MGE still unsolved and undeservedly forgotten. If this phenomenon were finally shown real and credible, it would be an important breakthrough for the whole biological science, with a number of very serious applications (see Section MGE as a Non-invasive Probe for Detecting Physiological and Pathological States of Cells and Tissues). Otherwise, it should be univocally closed. We reckon that further progress in this area demands comprehensive examination of both positive and negative works, with the focus on methodical details and reproducibility.

In this section we give basic definitions of the mitogenetic effect, and summarize conditions necessary to obtain it.

Mitogenetic effect (MGE)—is a change in mitotic regime in a cell culture or tissue under external non-chemical influence of another biological object.

Recipients of MGE (often called “detectors”)—are cell cultures and tissues, capable of showing MGE under external influence.

Bacterial and yeast cultures in lag phase (Wolf and Ras, 1931; Ferguson and Rahn, 1933; Tuthill and Rahn, 1933);

Plant meristem (Gurwitsch, 1923; Reiter and Gabor, 1928b; Siebert and Seffert, 1933);

Developing embryos [eggs of sea urchin (Magrou and Magrou, 1927); frog eggs (Reiter and Gabor, 1928b); eggs of Drosophila (Wolf and Ras, 1934)].

Inductors of MGE—are those objects that can produce MGE in proper recipients when put in proper conditions.

Actively growing microbial (Magrou and Magrou, 1927; Siebert, 1928a; Baron, 1930; Acs, 1932) and tissue cultures (Gurwitsch and Gurwitsch, 1934);

Blood of healthy people (Gurwitsch and Salkind, 1929; Siebert, 1930; Pesochensky, 1942);

Not growing or slowly growing cultures (Gurwitsch and Gurwitsch, 1934; Rahn, 1936);

Blood of cancer patients (Gurwitsch and Salkind, 1929; Siebert, 1930; Pesochensky, 1942);

Blood of people with some other diseases (anemia, sepsis, pneumonia, scarlatina) (Protti, 1930; Siebert, 1930);

Blood of old and exhausted people (Protti, 1930; Gurwitsch and Gurwitsch, 1934; Pesochensky, 1942).

Selection of proper inductors and recipients still cannot guarantee the effect. A number of other conditions, necessary to obtain MGE were shown in different works. Here we summarize them in short.

The maximal “working” distance depends on the inductor, induction length and special conditions like “interrupted induction” (see below) (Gurwitsch, 1932, 1968; Gurwitsch and Gurwitsch, 1948).

The effect is non-linearly dose-dependent, with clear suppression phase at high doses (Sussmanowitsch, 1928; Gurwitsch, 1932; Wolf and Ras, 1933).

The length of induction should be optimized for every conditions a new, at least in the diapason 1–120 min.