Effects of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields on caspase activities

Abstract

All life on Earth is bathed in a sea of natural low-frequency electromagnetic fields from conception to death. Since the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its international electromagnetic fields (EMF) project in 1996, it has conducted international reviews of the evidence on whether exposure to static and extremely low frequency (ELF) fields might be harmful to health. ELF fields for WHO’s EMF project are defined as those having frequencies above zero and below 300 Hz. In the framework of this study, the activation of seven different caspases will be investigated systematically, when extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields, which are thought to be an environmental hazard according to WHO, are applied to the HEK 293 cell line. The selected frequency will be 50 Hz, which is the power transmission line frequency in most parts of the world. Two different magnetic field strengths will be applied to HEK 293 cells, and two different exposure durations will be chosen. Caspase activity levels are to be measured at different time points after exposure. The common pattern seen in all of them was the oscillation of enzyme activities from the beginning. At 100 μT, caspases gave four peaks at four, eight, 16 and 34-hour incubation periods. This oscillatory behavior can also be seen when 25 μT magnetic field was applied, but the behaviors of the enzymes were different in a certain extent. The location and the number of the peaks at 25 μT exposure were quite variable, but the activity periods of all caspases seemed to be shorter than those exposed to 100 μT. The data presented here indicate that when ELF-EMF is applied to the HEK 293 cells, all seven caspases investigated are found to be activated, but this activation shows an oscillatory pattern, and in the long run it seems to be damped by some intracellular mechanisms.