Human keratinocytes in culture exhibit no response when exposed to short duration, low amplitude, high frequency (900 MHz) electromagnetic fields in a reverberation chamber

Abstract

We exposed normal human epidermal keratinocytes to short duration, high frequency, and low amplitude electromagnetic fields, similar to that used by mobile phone technologies. We paid particular attention to the control of the characteristics of the electromagnetic environment generated within a mode stirred reverberation chamber (statistical homogeneity and isotropy of the field and SAR distribution). Two non-thermal exposure conditions were tested on the epidermal cells: 10-min exposure with a field amplitude of 8 V/m, and 30 min with 41 V/m. Corresponding specific absorption rates ranged from 2.6 to 73 mW/kg (continuous wave, 900 MHz carrier frequency). We collected RNA from cells subjected to these conditions and used it for a large-scale microarray screening of over 47000 human genes. Under these conditions, exposure of keratinocytes to the electromagnetic field had little effect; only 20 genes displayed significant modulation. The expression ratios were very small (close to 1.5-fold change), and none of them were shared by the two tested conditions. Furthermore, those assayed using polymerase chain reaction did not display significant expression modulation (overall mean of the exposed samples: 1.20 ± 0.18). In conclusion, the data presented here show that cultured keratinocytes are not significantly affected by EMF exposure.

Whole‐genome expression analysis in primary human keratinocyte cell cultures exposed to 60 GHz radiation

“…In addition, the data are very heterogeneous, making any comparison difficult. Several publications showed no significant difference between sham or exposed cells [Gurisik et al, 2006;Qutob et al, 2006;Whitehead et al, 2006a;Chauhan et al, 2007;Huang et al, 2008], or described weak changes that were not confirmed by RT-PCR validation [Zeng et al, 2006;Paparini et al, 2008;Roux et al, 2011;Sakurai et al, 2011], while other microarray studies reported modified gene expression after radiofrequency exposure [Belyaev et al, 2006;Nylund and Leszczynski, 2006;Remondini et al, 2006;Zhao et al, 2007;Huang et al, 2008]. However, these positive studies reported a small number of responsive genes (9-34) with a FC generally close to, or lower than 2.…”

Ecological study on the penetration of induction heating cookers and birth outcomes in Japan

“…Roux et al failed to find differences in gene expression of normal human keratinocytes exposed to 900 MHz, CW, for 10 min (2.6 W/kg) or 30 min (0.73 W/kg) compared to sham-exposed cultures. As a matter of fact, some genes had a different expression but this result was not confirmed by RT-PCR (Roux et al, 2010). Sakurai et al (2011) also found altered gene expression not confirmed by RT-PCR in human-derived glial cells exposed for 1, 4 or 24 h to 2450 MHz, CW, at 1, 5 or 10 W/kg SAR.…”

Searching for the Perfect Wave: The Effect of Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields on Cells

“…It appears therefore that in lymphoblastic leukemia cells, the 900 MHz MW-EMF may act as a double target negative regulator of genes: it affects the control of chromosomal organization and induces inhibition of angiogenesis that leads to tumor progression and metastatic transformation. It is worth mentioning that several previous microarray analyses carried out after RF exposure failed to detect any significant changes in the gene expression in normal peripheral [32] or CNS glial cells [33] or cancer cell models.…”