Abstract
Mutagenicity of complex exposure to static magnetic field(MF) and 50Hz MF was investigated. We developed a exposure system that can generate a 5T static MF and a 1mT 50Hz MF simultaneously with temperature control. To investigate the mutagenicity, bacterial mutation assay (Ames test) using Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100, and also yeast mutation assay using Saccharomyces cerevisiae XD83 were performed. It was found that gene conversion/recombination frequency in S. cerevisiae XD83 was slightly increased by exposure to a complex MF while point mutation frequency in S. cerevisiae and S. typhimurium was not affected. This result is consistent with previous studies for static MFs, however we observed smaller mutagenicity in this study than one by a 5T static MF alone. This suggests that complex exposure of 50Hz MF with static MF might cause weak protective effects. In future study, different exposure condition will be examined for estimation of the effect of complex MF exposure that was generated in our environment. [J Radiat Res 44:418 (2003)]
