Gene Expression Analysis of a Human Lymphoblastoma Cell Line Exposed In Vitro to an Intermittent 1.9 GHz Pulse-Modulated Radiofrequency Field.

Chauhan V, Mariampillai A, Bellier PV, Qutob SS, Gajda GB, Lemay E, Thansandote A, McNamee JP

Radiat Res. 165(4):424-429, 2006

This study was designed to determine whether radiofrequency (RF) fields of the type used for wireless communications could elicit a cellular stress response.

As general indicators of a cellular stress response, we monitored changes in proto-oncogene and heat-shock protein expression.

Exponentially growing human lymphoblastoma cells (TK6) were exposed to 1.9 GHz pulse-modulated RF fields at average specific absorption rates (SARs) of 1 and 10 W/kg. Perturbations in the expression levels of the proto-oncogenes FOS, JUN and MYC after exposure to sham and RF fields were assessed by real-time RT-PCR.

In addition, the transcript levels of the cellular stress proteins HSP27 and inducible HSP70 were also monitored.

We demonstrated that transcript levels of these genes in RF-field-exposed cells showed no significant difference in relation to the sham treatment group. However, concurrent positive (heat-shock) control samples displayed a significant elevation in the expression of HSP27, HSP70, FOS and JUN.

Conversely, the levels of MYC mRNA were found to decline in the positive (heat-shock) control. In conclusion, our study found no evidence that the 1.9 GHz RF-field exposure caused a general stress response in TK6 cells under our experimental conditions.