TITL: Induction of DNA strand breaks by intermittent exposure to extremely-low-frequency electromagnetic fields in human diploid fibroblasts. [In Process] [Click hyperlink for pdf copy of article]

AUTH: Ivancsits Sabine; Diem Elisabeth; Pilger Alexander; Rudiger Hugo W; Jahn Oswald

ORGA: Division of Occupational Medicine, University Hospital/AKH, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria. sabine.ivancsits@akh-wien.ac.at

PUB TYPE: Journal Article.

CITE: Mutat Res 2002 Aug 26; 519 (1-2): 1-13

LANG: ENG; English

ABST: Results of epidemiological research show low association of electromagnetic field (EMF) with increased risk of cancerous diseases and missing dose-effect relations. An important component in assessing potential cancer risk is knowledge concerning any genotoxic effects of extremely-low-frequency-EMF (ELF-EMF).Human diploid fibroblasts were exposed to continuous or intermittent ELF-EMF (50Hz, sinusoidal, 24h, 1000microT). For evaluation of genotoxic effects in form of DNA single- (SSB) and double-strand breaks (DSB), the alkaline and the neutral comet assay were used.In contrast to continuous ELF-EMF exposure, the application of intermittent fields reproducibly resulted in a significant increase of DNA strand break levels, mainly DSBs, as compared to non-exposed controls. The conditions of intermittence showed an impact on the induction of DNA strand breaks, producing the highest levels at 5min field-on/10min field-off. We also found individual differences in response to ELF-EMF as well as an evident exposure-response relationship between magnetic flux density and DNA migration in the comet assay.Our data strongly indicate a genotoxic potential of intermittent EMF. This points to the need of further studies in vivo and consideration about environmental threshold values for ELF exposure.

GEOT: Netherlands

IDEN: ISSN: 0027-5107. JOURNAL-CODE: 0400763. ENTRY-DATE: 20020805. SPECIAL-LIST: IM. JOURNAL-SUBSET: IM.

ACCE: 22151589

PMID: 12160887