Evaluation of cellular effects of pulsed and continuous wave radiofrequency radiation

Full text: In less than twenty years, the mobile telephone has gone from being rare, expensive equipment of the business elite to a pervasive, low-cost personal item. Since the introduction of mobile phones, concerns have been raised about the potential detrimental impacts on living beings from regular use. The first 'modern' network technology on second generation cellular technology was launched in 1991 in Finland on the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard. This study evaluates cellular effects of, both, continuous (CW) and pulsed GSM modulated waves (PW). Continuous cell culture of Chinese hamster lung cells, line V79, was used in this study. Cell growth and colony forming ability (CFA) was analyzed after 1, 2 and 3 hours of exposure to the both frequency fields, 935 MHz CW and 915 MHz PW. Selected frequency fields were generated inside gigahertz transversal electromagnetic mode cell (GTEM) equipped with the signal generators. Hewlett Packard HP8657A signal generator was used to generate CW 935 MHz frequency field. Anritzu MS2711B spectrum analyzer with tracking generator and Micro devices RF 3146 power amplifier module generated PW radiofrequency field of 915 MHz. Averaged specific absorption rate (SAR) belonging to the CW 935 MHz frequency field was calculated to be 0.12 W/kg, and for GSM modulated 915 MHz field was 0.23 W/kg. Cell samples were irradiated in triplicate. The sham exposed control cell samples were included in the study. The temperature inside the exposure set-up was recorded in ten-minute intervals through the irradiation treatment. Both, sham-exposed and exposed cell samples were kept in the same condition, except in the time of irradiation for experimental samples when signal generator was switched on. To determine cell growth, V79 samples were plated in concentration of 1x104cells/mL. Cells were maintained in the standard laboratory conditions, which are humidified atmosphere, 37 C degrees, and 5% CO2. Cell proliferation was determined by cell counts for each hour of exposure during five post-exposure days. To identify colony-forming ability, cells were cultivated in concentration of 40 cells/mL and incubated as above. Colony forming ability was defined by colony counts on the 7 th post-exposure day for each hour of exposure. In comparison to the controls, growth curve shows that proliferation ability of CW irradiated cells significantly decrease after 3 hours of exposure on the 3rd post-exposure day. PW exposed cell samples showed significant decrease after 3 hours of exposure on the 2nd and 3rd post-exposure day. CFA of CW and PW exposed cells did not significantly differ from the matched controls. The applied radiofrequency fields have shown similar effect on cell culture growth and CFA. Under the comparable conditions of exposure, pulsed radiofrequency radiation can be more effective in producing biological effects than continuous radiofrequency radiation. (author)