title: In vitro increase of the fluid-phase endocytosis induced by pulsed radiofrequency electromagnetic fields: importance of the electric field component.
abstract: Nowadays, due to the wide use of mobile phones, the possible biological effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) become a public health general concern. Despite intensive research, there are no widely accepted theories about the interactions between EMFs and living cells, and the experimental data are often controversial. We examined the effects of mobile phones EMF (envelope frequency of 217 Hz, carrier frequency of 900 MHz and pulse duration of 580 micros) or its pure, low-frequency pulsed electric field component on fluid-phase endocytosis. In both cases, with exposures exceeding 10 min, an increase of the fluid-phase endocytosis rate was observed ( approximately 1.5-fold), on three different cell types. This increase is an all-or-nothing type of response that is occurring for threshold values comprised between 1.3 and 2.6 W/kg for the delivered EMF powers and between 1.1 and 1.5 V/cm for the electric fields intensities depending upon the cell type. The electric component of these EMFs is shown to be responsible for the observed increase. Variations of frequency or pulse duration of the electric pulses are shown to be without effect. Thus, EMF, via their electrical component, can perturb one of the most fundamental physiological functions of the cells-endocytosis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Vectorologie et Transfert de Gènes, UMR 8121 CNRS, Institut Gustave-Roussy, 39 rue Camille Desmoulins, 94805 Villejuif Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Nawel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mahrour
authors.forename: Roxana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pologea-Moraru
authors.forename: Mihaela G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Moisescu
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Orlowski
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Levêque
authors.forename: Lluis M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Mir
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D002460:Cell Line; D006224:Cricetinae; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004705:Endocytosis; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes