induction of chromosomal aberrations in human primary fibroblasts and immortalized cancer cells exposed to extremely-low-frequency electromagnetic fields

background: rapidly increasing possibilities of exposure to environmental extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (elf-emf) have become a topic of worldwide investigation. epidemiological and laboratory studies suggest that exposure to elf-emf may increase cancer risk therefore assessment of chromosomal damage in various cell lines might be of predictive value for future risk estimation. materials and methods: primary cultures of fibroblasts from human skin biopsy were exposed to continuous extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (3, 50 and 60 hz, sinusoidal, 3h, and 4 mt). also immortalized cell lines, sw480, mcf-7 and 1321n1 were exposed to continuous elf-emf (50 hz, sinusoidal, 3 h, 4 mt). metaphase plates were prepared according to standard methods and stained in 5% giemsa solution. chromosomal aberrations of both chromosome and chromatid types were scored to evaluate the effects of elf-emf on primary or established cell lines. results: results indicate that by increasing the frequency of elf-emf, chromosomal aberrations were increased up to 7-fold above background levels in primary human fibroblast cells. in addition, continuous exposure to a 50 hz electromagnetic field led to a significant increase in chromosomal aberrations in sw480, mcf-7 and 1321n1 cell lines compared to sham control. conclusion: results obtained indicate that elf-emf has the potential for induction of chromosomal aberrations in all cell types. iran. j. radiat. res., 2010 8 (1): 25-29