Abstract
The potential effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields (EMFs), such as those emitted by power-lines (in extremely low frequency range), mobile cellular systems and wireless networking devices (in radio frequency range) on human health have been intensively researched and debated. However, how exposure to these EMFs may lead to biological changes underlying possible health effects is still unclear. To reveal EMF-induced molecular changes, unbiased experiments (without a priori focusing on specific biological processes) with sensitive readouts are required. We present the first proteome-wide semi-quantitative mass spectrometry analysis of human fibroblasts, osteosarcomas and mouse embryonic stem cells exposed to three types of non-ionizing EMFs (ELF 50 Hz, UMTS 2.1 GHz and WiFi 5.8 GHz). We performed controlled in vitro EMF exposures of metabolically labeled mammalian cells followed by reliable statistical analyses of differential protein- and pathway-level regulations using an array of established bioinformatics methods. Our results indicate that less than 1% of the quantitated human or mouse proteome responds to the EMFs by small changes in protein abundance. Further network-based analysis of the differentially regulated proteins did not detect significantly perturbed cellular processes or pathways in human and mouse cells in response to ELF, UMTS or WiFi exposure. In conclusion, our extensive bioinformatics analyses of semi-quantitative mass spectrometry data do not support the notion that the short-time exposures to non-ionizing EMFs have a consistent biologically significant bearing on mammalian cells in culture.
Highlights
Modern society is becoming more and more dependent on electrical power to fuel a wide range of equipments including communication devices
We present the proteome-wide analyses of human fibroblasts and osteosarcoma cells, and of mouse embryonic stem cells exposed to extremely low frequency (ELF)- and radio frequency (RF)-electromagnetic fields (EMFs)
The choice of mammalian cell lines reflects different biological signatures that are relevant in response to EMF exposures: the VH10 human fibroblasts, a skin cell line used as a model for the first tissue that would be exposed to the fields, in particular to EMFs in radio frequency range; the U2OS osteosarcoma cell line as a sensitive cell line with compromised molecular regulatory pathways in cancer; and the mouse IB10 embryonic stem cells as sensitive sensors for subtle disturbances during cellular differentiation, as these cells have the potential to become any cell type in the adult organism
Summary
Modern society is becoming more and more dependent on electrical power to fuel a wide range of equipments including communication devices. This has resulted in an increase of exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) and radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs). Response to growth factors occurs through receptor molecules on the cell surface that through conformational changes induce post-translational modification of proteins in the cytoplasm. This eventually results in the activation of nuclear transcription factors that turn on/off the genes whose products (or their absence) mount the appropriate cellular response. In case of the DNA damage response, nuclear DNA is the ‘receptor’ because when its integrity is disturbed by DNA damaging agents, such as ionizing radiation or tobacco smoke, it triggers cell cycle arrest and downstream biological effects such as apoptosis or repair of the DNA lesions [7,8,9]
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