ABSTRACT

Extremely low-frequency electromagnetic field (ELF-EMF) exposures influence many biological systems. These effects are mainly related to the intensity, duration, frequency, and pattern of the ELF-EMF. Our intent was to characterize the effect of specific pulsed electromagnetic fields on the in vitro proliferation of MCF-7 adenocarcinoma and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines and one non-cancerous M10 breast epithelial cell line. The following four important parameters of ELF-EMF were examined: frequencies (7.83 ± 0.3, 23.49 ± 0.3, and 39.15 ± 0.3 Hz), flux density (0.5 and 1 mT), exposure duration (12, 24, and 48 h), and the exposure methodology (continuous exposure versus switching exposure). The viability of MDA-MB-231 cells exposed to the optimized ELF-EMF pattern (7.83 ± 0.3 Hz, 1 mT, and 6 h switching exposure) was 40.1%. By contrast, the optimized ELF-EMF parameters that were most cytotoxic to breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells were not damaging to normal M10 cells. In vitro studies also showed that exposure of MDA-MB-231 cells to the optimized ELF-EMF pattern promoted Ca²⁺ influx and resulted in apoptosis. These data confirm that exposure to this specific ELF-EMF pattern can influence cellular processes and inhibit cancer cell growth. The specific ELF-EMF pattern determined in this study may provide a potential anti-cancer treatment in the future.

摘要

极低频电磁场 (ELF-EMF) 暴露会影响许多生物系统。这些影响主要与 ELF-EMF 的强度、持续时间、频率和模式有关。我们的目的是表征特定脉冲电磁场​​对 MCF-7 腺癌和 MDA-MB-231 乳腺癌细胞系以及一种非癌性 M10 乳腺上皮细胞系的体外增殖的影响。检查了 ELF-EMF 的以下四个重要参数：频率（7.83 ± 0.3、23.49 ± 0.3 和 39.15 ± 0.3 Hz）、通量密度（0.5 和 1 mT）、暴露持续时间（12、24 和 48 小时），和暴露方法（连续暴露与切换暴露）。MDA-MB-231 细胞暴露于优化的 ELF-EMF 模式（7.83 ± 0.3 Hz、1 mT 和 6 小时切换暴露）的存活率为 40.1%。相比之下，对乳腺癌 MDA-MB-231 细胞毒性最强的优化 ELF-EMF 参数对正常 M10 细胞没有损害。体外研究还表明，MDA-MB-231 细胞暴露于优化的 ELF-EMF 模式促进了 Ca²⁺流入并导致细胞凋亡。这些数据证实，暴露于这种特定的 ELF-EMF 模式可以影响细胞过程并抑制癌细胞生长。本研究确定的特定 ELF-EMF 模式可能在未来提供潜在的抗癌治疗。