Comet assay to evaluate DNA damage caused by magnetic fields

Author

Ahuja, Y.R. ; Bhargava, Anshu ; Sircar, Safia ; Rizwani, Wasia ; Lima, Shakira ; Devadas, A.H. ; Bhargava, S.C.

Author_Institution

Genetic Unit, Bhagwan Mahavir Res. Centre, Hyderabad, India

fYear

1997

fDate

3-5 Dec 1997

Firstpage

273

Lastpage

276

Abstract

Six female subjects, in the age group of 20-25 years, were included in the study. Peripheral blood was collected from each of the 6 subjects and exposed for one hr to 5 different magnetic densities (2 mT, 3 mT, 5 mT, 7 mT, 10 mT, rms) at 50 Hz, in addition to the control. The blood samples were processed for comet assay. Comet-tail length was measured in 50 cells per treatment per individual. The data were pooled for 6 subjects for each flux density of magnetic field tested. When compared with the control value, there was a significant increase in the DNA damage for each flux density. Since an increase in genomic instability is an indicator of deleterious effects on health, it may be concluded that chronic exposure to the doses used in the present study may result in an increased incidence of congenital malformations and cancer

Keywords

DNA; biological effects of fields; biomagnetism; blood; health hazards; magnetic field effects; 2 to 10 mT; DNA damage; blood; cancer; chronic exposure; comet assay; comet-tail length; congenital malformations; deleterious effects; flux density; genomic instability; health; magnetic densities; magnetic field; magnetic fields; Bioinformatics; Blood; Cancer; DNA; Genomics; Length measurement; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetic fields; Magnetic flux; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electromagnetic Interference and Compatibility '97. Proceedings of the International Conference on

Conference_Location

Hyderabad

Print_ISBN

81-900652-0-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICEMIC.1997.669812

Filename

669812