Role of Low Frequency Bio Electromagnetic Field on Angiogenesis Biomarkers in Human Breast Tumor Cell Line

Abstract

Many biological processes are affected by electromagnetic fields. Effect of electromagnetic field on proliferation, cell division, wound healing and gene expression were examined. Angiogenesis, new blood vessel formation, which is required for embryonic development and many physiological events, plays a crucial role in the pathobiology of tumors and researches show angiogenesis inhibition could be an effective therapeutic strategy for patients with cancer. In this research, effects of low-frequency electromagnetic field on VEGF-A, VEGFR-2 and MMP gene expression as potent biomarkers of angiogenesis was investigated in human breast cancer cells. MCF-7 cells were grown in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and incubated at 37˚C with 5% CO2. After 48h all flasks exposed with electromagnetic field (50Hz, 0.004 T) then total RNA was extracted and cDNA was synthesized using specific primer. Finally synthesized products were analyzed by Real Time PCR to determine expression level of VEGF-A, VEGFR-2 and MMP. Data was analyzed by SPSS software ANOVA and Tukey. Data analysis shows inhibitory effect of low-frequency bio electromagnetic field with 50Hz, 400 gauss intensity in MCF-7 cell line compared with control group. Although all genes did not show same reduction but gene expression in all cases affected by low-frequency electromagnetic field. Significant inhibitory effect on gene expression was for VEGFR-2 with 25% decrease P<0.001. Matrix Metalloproteinase gene level decreased 8% (P˂0.05) while it was noticeable for VEGF-A at P˃0.05. Results indicate decreases in the expression of biomarkers of angiogenesis in the treated samples with lowfrequency electromagnetic field with 400 gauss intensity in MCF-7 cell line compared with control group which may be promising prevention for angiogenesis related diseases.