CHANGES IN CELL-PROLIFERATION DUE TO ENVIRONMENTAL NONIONIZING RADIATION .1. ELF ELECTROMAGNETIC-FIELDS

To study the effect of extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields on cell growth, human cells (AMA cells) and K14 skin fibroblast cells, growing in monolayer culture, were exposed to a sinusoidal 50 Hz, 80 mu T field. Exposure times varied from 15 to 90 min. Changes in cell proliferation rates were then studied during subsequent field-free incubation, for 24 h. The results showed that a 30 min exposure resulted in a much higher increase in proliferation rates in the AMA cells compared with non-exposed cells or cells exposed to electromagnetic fields for shorter or longer times. The magnitude of the increase also depended on the initial proliferation rate and confluency. The exposure to varying field densities showed that the greatest increase in proliferation occurred at 80 mu T.