Characterization of biological effect of 1763 MHz radiofrequency exposure on auditory hair cells.
OBJECTIVE
Radiofrequency (RF) exposure at the frequency of mobile phones has been reported not to induce cellular damage in in vitro and in vivo models. We chose HEI-OC1 immortalized mouse auditory hair cells to characterize the cellular response to 1763 MHz RF exposure, because auditory cells could be exposed to mobile phone frequencies.


METHODS
Cells were exposed to 1763 MHz RF at a 20 W/kg specific absorption rate (SAR) in a code division multiple access (CDMA) exposure chamber for 24 and 48 h to check for changes in cell cycle, DNA damage, stress response, and gene expression.


RESULTS
Neither of cell cycle changes nor DNA damage was detected in RF-exposed cells. The expression of heat shock proteins (HSP) and the phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) did not change, either. We tried to identify any alteration in gene expression using microarrays. Using the Applied Biosystems 1700 full genome expression mouse microarray, we found that only 29 genes (0.09% of total genes examined) were changed by more than 1.5-fold on RF exposure.


CONCLUSIONS
From these results, we could not find any evidence of the induction of cellular responses, including cell cycle distribution, DNA damage, stress response and gene expression, after 1763 MHz RF exposure at an SAR of 20 W/kg in HEI-OC1 auditory hair cells.
Huang
Tai-Qin
TQ
ILCHUN Genomic Medicine Institute, MRC and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Lee
Min Su
MS
Oh
Eun-Ha
EH
Kalinec
Federico
F
Zhang
Byoung-Tak
BT
Seo
Jeong-Sun
JS
Park
Woong-Yang
WY
D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D002460:Cell Line; D040421:Cell Phone; D003051:Cochlea / Q000166:cytology; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000528:radiation effects; D006198:Hair Cells, Auditory / Q000378:metabolism / Q000528:radiation effects*; D051379:Mice; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011846:Radio Waves / Q000009:adverse effects*
D015415:Biomarkers