Analysis of gene expression in two human-derived cell lines exposed in vitro to a 1.9 GHz pulse-modulated radiofrequency field.

There is considerable controversy surrounding the biological effects of radiofrequency (RF) fields, as emitted by mobile phones. Previous work from our laboratory has shown no effect related to the exposure of 1.9 GHz pulse-modulated RF fields on the expression of 22,000 genes in a human glioblastoma-derived cell-line (U87MG) at 6 h following a 4 h RF field exposure period. As a follow-up to this study, we have now examined the effect of RF field exposure on the possible expression of late onset genes in U87MG cells after a 24 h RF exposure period. In addition, a human monocyte-derived cell-line (Mono-Mac-6, MM6) was exposed to intermittent (5 min ON, 10 min OFF) RF fields for 6 h and then gene expression was assessed immediately after exposure and at 18 h postexposure. Both cell lines were exposed to 1.9 GHz pulse-modulated RF fields for 6 or 24 h at specific absorption rates (SARs) of 0.1-10.0 W/kg. In support of our previous results, we found no evidence that nonthermal RF field exposure could alter gene expression in either cultured U87MG or MM6 cells, relative to nonirradiated control groups. However, exposure of both cell-lines to heat-shock conditions (43 degrees C for 1 h) caused an alteration in the expression of a number of well-characterized heat-shock proteins.