Protective Effect of Qi-Shield on the Regeneration of Cultured Connective Tissue Fibroblasts after Mobile Phone Radiation – A Study Using Continuous Monitoring by Video Micrography

Abstract

Background: Mobile phones are high performance devices that consume a lot of energy and also generate heat in form of microwaves. This heat is mainly created by the high frequency electromagnetic fields that transmit voice or data in mobile communications. Moreover, mobile phones also possess non-thermal radiation which has been shown to induce oxidative stress and molecular and cellular damage. Material and methods: In this study not only the dynamic process of cellular damage following oxidative stress from the radiation of an actively transmitting mobile phone was investigated, but also a device named Qi-Shield, which claims to protect from the adverse effects of a mobile phone & WLAN radiation at realistic conditions. The regeneration process of cultured connective tissue cells (cell line L-929) which results in the closure of an artificial cell-free area by cell proliferation and migration, was used for continuous video micrography evaluation for more than 60 hours. Three different experimental approaches were conducted: (1) Regeneration of untreated control cells; (2) Regeneration of unprotected cells after 4 hours of mobile phone radiation; (3) Regeneration of Qi-Shield protected cells after 4 hours of mobile phone radiation. For definite time points during the regeneration process the residual cell-free area was examined by a specialized software with artificial intelligence. Four independent experiments over a period of four weeks were conducted. Results and conclusions: A quite consistent cell reaction for the three different experimental approaches was observed in all experiments. The unexposed control cells showed a nearly linear reduction of the cell-free area with a time point of closure at 50 hours. The unprotected cells after mobile phone exposure also showed a roughly linear reduction of the cell-free area, but its magnitude was significantly lower and did not result in any closure of the cell-free area. The cells protected by Qi-Shield behaved very close to the unexposed cells, although a closure of the cell-free area within 60 hours of regeneration was only observed in two of four experiments. When calculating a relation between the values at 50 hours of regeneration by setting the value for the reduction of unexposed control cells as 100 %, a reduction value of 22 % was obtained for the unprotected cells, but 82.7 % for the Qi-Shield protected cells. Therefore, Qi-Shield was able to protect cells from the adverse effects of mobile phone & WLAN radiation by more than 82 %. The results clearly demonstrate the different dynamic reactions of connective tissue cells after mobile phone radiation and the successful use of Qi-Shield to reduce adverse cellular effects. Keywords: Mobile phone radiation; Oxidative stress; Fibroblast; L-929; Cell regeneration; Cell culture