Abstract
We investigated whether exposure to high frequency electromagnetic fields causes DNA damage in cells, using the alkaline Comet assay. The exposure device made for this study used a TE01 circular waveguide operating at a frequency of 2.45GHz. Cells of the human brain tumor-derived MO54 cell line were exposed to an electromagnetic field (input power: 7.8W, average SAR in the middle well of an annular culture plate: CW 50W/kg) for 2 hours & the tail moments of the cells in the inner, middle & outer wells of the plate were compared with those of sham-exposed cells. There was no significant difference between the high frequency electromagnetic field-exposed groups & the sham-exposed groups. Three studies performed under the same conditions gave similar results. Next, cells were exposed to a stronger electromagnetic field (input power: 13W, average SAR in the middle well: CW 100W/kg) for 2 hours & compared with sham-exposed cells. There was also no significant difference in the tail moments of cells in the inner, middle & outer wells of the plate in the high frequency electromagnetic field-exposed groups and the sham-exposed groups. These findings suggest that a high frequency electromagnetic field does not cause direct DNA damage, & does not induce DNA strand breaks, even at a SAR of 100 W/kg.
