Effects of extremely low frequency electromagnetic field (ELF-EMF) on catalase, cytochrome P450 and nitric oxide synthase in erythro-leukemic cells.
Patruno A, Tabrez S, Pesce M, Shakil S, Kamal MA, Reale M · 2015
View Original AbstractELF-EMF exposure disrupted key cellular enzymes controlling oxidative stress in leukemia cells, revealing potential molecular mechanisms for EMF health effects.
Plain English Summary
Italian researchers exposed leukemia cells to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (the type emitted by power lines and household appliances) for 24 hours at 50 Hz. They found significant changes in three key cellular enzymes that control oxidative stress and cellular metabolism. These enzyme disruptions could help explain how EMF exposure might contribute to health problems at the cellular level.
Why This Matters
This study provides crucial mechanistic insights into how ELF-EMF exposure affects cellular function. The researchers identified specific molecular pathways through which 50 Hz magnetic fields (the frequency of electrical power systems) disrupt critical enzymes involved in oxidative stress and cellular detoxification. What makes this particularly significant is that these same enzyme systems are already known to be disrupted in various cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. The 1 mT exposure level used here is higher than typical household exposures (which range from 0.01-0.2 mT near appliances), but the fact that clear biological effects occurred demonstrates the cellular machinery is indeed responsive to EMF. This research strengthens the biological plausibility argument for EMF health effects and provides specific molecular targets that future studies can investigate.
Exposure Details
- Magnetic Field
- 1 mG
- Source/Device
- 50 Hz
- Exposure Duration
- 24 h
Exposure Context
This study used 1 mG for magnetic fields:
- 50Kx above the Building Biology guideline of 0.2 mG
- 10Kx above the BioInitiative Report recommendation of 1 mG
Building Biology guidelines are practitioner-based limits from real-world assessments. BioInitiative Report recommendations are based on peer-reviewed science. Check Your Exposure to compare your own measurements.
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
Extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMFs) are widely employed in electrical appliances and different equipment such as television sets, mobile phones, computers and microwaves. The molecular mechanism through which ELF-EMFs can influence cellular behavior is still unclear. A hypothesis is that ELF-EMFs could interfere with chemical reactions involving free radical production. Under physiologic conditions, cells maintain redox balance through production of ROS/RNS and antioxidant molecules. The altered balance between ROS generation and elimination plays a critical role in a variety of pathologic conditions including neurodegenerative diseases, aging and cancer. Actually, there is a disagreement as to whether there is a causal or coincidental relationship between ELF-EMF exposure and leukemia development. Increased ROS levels have been observed in several hematopoietic malignancies including acute and chronic myeloid leukemias.
In our study, the effect of ELF-EMF exposure on catalase, cytochrome P450 and inducible nitric oxide...
A significant modulation of iNOS, CAT and Cyt P450 protein expression was recorded as a result of EL...
These new insights might be important in establishing a mechanistic framework at the molecular level within which the possible effects of ELF-EMF on health can be understood.
Show BibTeX
@article{a_2015_effects_of_extremely_low_441,
author = {Patruno A and Tabrez S and Pesce M and Shakil S and Kamal MA and Reale M},
title = {Effects of extremely low frequency electromagnetic field (ELF-EMF) on catalase, cytochrome P450 and nitric oxide synthase in erythro-leukemic cells. },
year = {2015},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0024320514009667},
}