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Viabilities and mutation frequencies of CHO-K1 cells following exposure to 60-Hz electric fields

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6164461

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were exposed to 60-Hz ac electromagnetic fields at strengths from 0.15 V/m to 10.9 V/m, using an exposure system which magnetically induces an electric field in the culture medium without the use of electrodes. Electric-field exposure with this system had no detectable cytotoxic or mutagenic effects. Mutation frequencies were not significantly increased at any of the electric-field strengths or exposure durations. However, cell viability, as measured by plating efficiency (ability of a cell to produce a colony), was significantly reduced. The threshold of detectability for this effect was a 24-h exposure at 0.7 V/m. As a result of these findings, and because of limitations of the exposure system, we designed and tested another exposure system which allowed exposure at higher field strengths. This system employs carbon electrodes directly coupled to the culture medium. To assure that electrode effects did not perturb the experiment, agar bridges were interposed between the electrodes and the cell suspension. The plating efficiency of cells exposured to 3.5 V/m in the agar-bridge graphite-electrode exposure system was not significantly different from those of control cultures. Therefore, the decreased cloning efficiency observed with the magnetically induced electric field may be either artifactual or a function of the system itself (i.e., the greater magnetic component relative to that of the agar-bridge exposure chamber). 22 refs., 9 figs., 2 tabs.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, WA (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
6164461
Report Number(s):
PNL-SA-12608; CONF-8510225-3; ON: DE86004864
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English