Investigation of the non-thermal effects of exposing cells to 70–300 GHz irradiation using a widely tunable source

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of millimeter wave (MMW) irradiation with a wide range of frequencies on the proliferation and activity of normal human skin fibroblast (NB1RBG) and human glioblastoma (A172) cells. Very few studies have focused on low-power, long-term irradiation of cells with a widely tunable source. Our research examined non-thermal effects on cells exposed to radiation at low power with tunable frequencies from 70 GHz to 300 GHz. A widely tunable MMW source was set within a cell culture incubator. To avoid the effect of heat generation due to irradiation, the intensity was maintained below 10 μW and the device was arranged such that the irradiation came from underneath the cells. Irradiation was performed by sweeping from 70 GHz to 300 GHz in 1.0 GHz steps. The MMW source was positioned 100 mm away from the container in which the cells were cultured. Cells were exposed to MMWs for either 3, 70 or 94 h. Measurements of cell proliferation were made using the alternating current measurement method. We found no difference in proliferation between cells exposed to MMWs and unexposed cells. A colorimetric method using novel tetrazolium compound: MTS [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium, inner salt] was used for cell activity and cytotoxicity assays. We found no difference in cellular activity or toxicity between MMW-exposed cells and sham cells. Our study thus found no non-thermal effect as a result of exposure of cells to 70 GHz to 300 GHz of radiation.

5G Wireless Communication and Health Effects—A Pragmatic Review Based on Available Studies Regarding 6 to 100 GHz

“…Different aspects were studied in the in vitro studies [18,28,39,50,64,72,83,89,94,106], where nerve cell function was investigated in three studies. Two studies used nerve cells from the snail Lymnea that were exposed at 75 GHz for a few minutes at very high SAR levels (up to 4200 W/kg, power density was not reported) [28,39].…”

Long-term exposure to a 40-GHz electromagnetic field does not affect genotoxicity or heat shock protein expression in HCE-T or SRA01/04 cells

“…The same group observed no effect of 60.4-GHz exposure on the keratinocyte transcriptome [8], although they did see a slight alteration in the transcriptome following co-exposure to millimeter waves and 2-deoxyglucose. Yaekashiwa et al reported no non-thermal effects following exposure of human skin fibroblast and glioblastoma cells to 70–300 GHz using a tunable system [25]. In summary, although several studies have examined the biological effects of millimeter-wave exposure, no study has yet obtained positive results.…”

Механизмы Влияния Терагерцового Излучения На Клетки (Обзор)

“…Возможно, это связано с используемыми для оценки эффектов методами. Так, методы оценки пролиферации, миграции, функциональной активности [80,82] являются менее чувствительными, чем методы молекулярной биологии, позволяющие определять как повреждения ДНК клетки, так и анализировать экспрессию определённых генов и синтез соответствующих белков [78,79,[83][84][85][86][87]. В то же время в большинстве работ, в которых наблюдалось влияние ТГц излучения, интенсивность источников значительно превышала безопасный уровень.…”