[Study of remanent magnetization of the human body: lung and liver tissues].
In this study, we used lung and liver tissue specimens distracted from tissue to investigate remanant magnetization, and found that specimens with a volume of 6 mm3 had an intensity of 10(-10) Am2, which was significantly stronger than the noise level of the superconducting magnetometer. This finding indicates that both lung and liver tissues contain magnetic materials. We speculated that biological magnetite is the magnetic material in these tissues. In addition, we found that lung tissue specimens with strong magnetization had correspondingly strong magnetized findings in the liver tissue specimens. In a comparison of magnetization in lung cancer tissue specimens and normal lung tissue, no significant relationship was noted, but two of the lung cancer tissue specimens showed strong magnetization. The number of lung cancer specimens studies was insufficient to investigate the relation between the magnetization (accumulation of magnetic materials) and lung cancer, and further studies are necessary. The magnetic properties of two lung cancer tissue specimens showing strong magnetization were further investigated, and an alternating field demagnetization experiment showed that their magnetization was composed of a unit stable vector, which indicates that the lung tissue may have been magnetized after the accumulation of magnetic materials. The Wohlfarth ratio (Moskowitz et al., 1989) of them was less than 0.5, which suggests that magnetic materials are distributed in clusters in lung tissue.
Sakai
H
H
Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science, Toyama University, Gofuku 3190, Toyama 930-8555, Japan.
Wang
H
H
Murai
Y
Y
Soukejima
S
S
Kagamimori
S
S
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D052203:Ferrosoferric Oxide; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000032:analysis*; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D008168:Lung / Q000378:metabolism*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D008280:Magnetics; D010087:Oxides / Q000032:analysis*
D010087:Oxides; D007501:Iron; D052203:Ferrosoferric Oxide