Non thermal effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure on neural cells

¹ University of Catania, Department of Physics and Astronomy “Ettore Majorana”, 95123 Catania, Italy
² Italian National Research Council, Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation, 95126 Catania, Italy
³ University of Catania Department of Drug Sciences, Section of Biochemistry, 95123 Catania, Italy
⁴ National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, 95123 Catania, Italy
⁵ Temix Engineering s.r.l., 95039 Trecastagni, Italy

^∗ Corresponding author: rosaria.grasso@ct.infn.it

Published online: 11 March 2020

Abstract

The non-thermal mechanisms, underlying the damage induced on human cells by radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs), are still unclear and only few studies reported about the effect of RFEMFs on self-renewal of neural progenitor cells. In this research, we investigated the influence of low-intensity RF-EMFs on Olfactory Ensheathing Cell (OEC) cultures, typical glia cells showing characteristics of stem cells. Cell cultures were exposed, in far-field condition, at 900 MHz continuous and amplitude modulated EMFs for 10, 15 and 20 min at 37°C. The expression of OEC marker (S-100), stem cell marker (Nestin), cytoskeletal proteins (GFAP and Vimentin), apoptotic pathway activation by Caspase-3 cleavage and cell viability, were evaluated. Surprisingly 20 min of exposure to continuous or amplitude modulated 900 MHz EMF induced a different and significant decrease in cell viability, some dynamic changes in the expression of the analysed markers and in the activation of the apoptotic pathway.