Extremely low frequency electromagnetic field induces apoptosis of osteosarcoma cells via oxidative stress.
Yang ML, Ye ZM · 2015
View Original AbstractELF electromagnetic fields at 1 milliTesla killed bone cancer cells through oxidative stress, suggesting potential therapeutic applications at controlled exposure levels.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed bone cancer cells to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) at 50 Hz and 1 milliTesla for up to 3 hours. They found the EMF exposure triggered cancer cell death (apoptosis) by increasing oxidative stress and activating specific cellular pathways. This suggests ELF-EMF might have potential therapeutic applications against bone cancer, though this was only tested in laboratory cell cultures, not living organisms.
Why This Matters
This study adds to a growing body of research showing that ELF-EMF can trigger programmed cell death in cancer cells through oxidative stress mechanisms. The 1 milliTesla exposure level used here is significantly higher than typical household exposures (which range from 0.01 to 0.2 milliTesla near appliances), suggesting these effects occur at elevated field strengths. What makes this research particularly interesting is that it identifies the specific biological pathway - increased reactive oxygen species leading to p38MAPK activation - by which EMF induces cancer cell death. While some might view any EMF-induced cellular effects as concerning, this study actually demonstrates a potentially beneficial application of controlled EMF exposure in cancer treatment. The key insight for readers is that EMF effects are highly dependent on exposure parameters like frequency, intensity, and duration, and the same fields that might be problematic for healthy cells could potentially be therapeutic against cancer cells.
Exposure Details
- Magnetic Field
- 1 mG
- Source/Device
- 50 Hz
- Exposure Duration
- 1, 2 and 3 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
To investigate the effects of extremely low frequency electromagnetic field (ELF-EMF) on human osteosarcoma cells and its mechanisms.
Human osteosarcoma MG-63 cells were exposed to 50 Hz,1 mT ELF-EMF for 1, 2 and 3 h in vitro, with o...
ELF-EMF decreased the viability of MG-63 cells, inhibited cell growth, induced cell apoptosis and in...
ELF-EMF can induce the apoptosis of MG-63 cells. Increased ROS and p38MAPK activation may be involved in the mechanism.
Show BibTeX
@article{ml_2015_extremely_low_frequency_electromagnetic_482,
author = {Yang ML and Ye ZM},
title = {Extremely low frequency electromagnetic field induces apoptosis of osteosarcoma cells via oxidative stress.},
year = {2015},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26350014/},
}