Intracellular microelectrophoresis was applied to investigate the electrokinetic properties of human buccal epithelium cell nuclei after exposure of cells to microwaves of wavelengths of 8 mm (f = 37.5 GHz) and 16 mm (f = 18.75 GHz) at a surface power density of 0.2 mW/cm(2). Irradiated or nonirradiated cells were suspended in a flat microelectrophoretic chamber and exposed to an electric field of 15 V/cm at a current flow of 0.1 mA. The cells, whose nuclei altered their intracellular location towards the anode of the externally applied electric field, were considered to have negatively charged nuclei. The percentage of cells with electrophoretically movable nuclei was determined as the value of electronegativity of cell nuclei (ENN). Microwaves induced changes of ENN during irradiation of 15-60 s. If cells of a donor had an elevated initial level of ENN, it decreased during irradiation. On the contrary, if cells of another donor had a low initial ENN level, irradiation induced ENN increase. No significant difference between the action of microwaves of wavelengths of 8 mm and 16 mm was found. However, microwave irradiation caused an increase in membrane permeability for the in vivo dye indigo Carmine in cells of all donors irrespectively of the initial levels they showed. This suggests that electrokinetic properties of nuclei in cells do not only depend on cell membrane permeability.

The effect of different densities of a cupula and endolymph on the dynamics of the semicircular canals is considered within the framework of a simplified one-dimensional mathematical model where the canal is approximated by a torus. If the densities are equal, the model is represented by Steinhausen's phenomenological equation. The difference of densities results in the complex dynamics of the cupulo-endolymphatic system, and leads to a dependence on the orientation of both the gravity vector relative to the canal plane and the axis of rotation, as well as on the distance between the axis of rotation and the center of the semicircular canal. Our analysis focused on two cases of canal stimulation: rotation with a constant velocity and a time-dependent (harmonically oscillating) angular velocity. Two types of spatial orientation of the axis of rotation, the axis of canal symmetry, and the vector of gravity were considered: i) the gravity vector and axis of rotation lie in the canal plane, and ii) the axis of rotation and gravity vector are normal to the canal plane. The difference of the cupula and endolymph densities reveals new features of cupula dynamics, for instance – a shift of the cupula to a new position of equilibrium that depends on the gravity vector and the parameters of head rotation, and the onset of cupula oscillations with multiple frequencies that results in the distortion of cupula dynamics relative to harmonic stimulation. Factors that might influence the density difference effects and the conditions under which these effects occur are discussed.

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