Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
Proc Biol Sci. 2018 May 30;285(1879). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0590.
Extremely low-frequency (ELF) magnetic fields have been classified as possibly carcinogenic, mainly based on rather consistent epidemiological findings suggesting a link between childhood leukaemia and 50-60 Hz magnetic fields from power lines. However, causality is not the only possible explanation for the epidemiological associations, as animal and experiments have provided only limited support for carcinogenic effects of ELF magnetic fields. Importantly, there is no generally accepted biophysical mechanism that could explain such effects. In this review, we discuss the possibility that carcinogenic effects are based on the radical pair mechanism (RPM), which seems to be involved in magnetoreception in birds and certain other animals, allowing navigation in the geomagnetic field. We review the current understanding of the RPM in magnetoreception, and discuss cryptochromes as the putative magnetosensitive molecules and their possible links to cancer-relevant biological processes. We then propose a hypothesis for explaining the link between ELF fields and childhood leukaemia, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the current evidence, and make proposals for further research.
极低频（ELF）磁场已被归类为可能致癌物质，主要依据是相当一致的流行病学研究结果表明，儿童白血病与来自电力线的 50-60 赫兹磁场之间存在关联。然而，对于这些流行病学关联，因果关系并不是唯一可能的解释，因为动物实验仅为 ELF 磁场的致癌作用提供了有限的支持。重要的是，目前还没有被普遍接受的生物物理机制可以解释这些影响。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了致癌作用是否基于自由基对机制（RPM）的可能性，该机制似乎参与了鸟类和某些其他动物的磁受体感知，从而能够在地磁场中导航。我们回顾了当前对磁受体感知中 RPM 的理解，并讨论了隐花色素作为假定的磁敏分子及其与癌症相关生物过程的可能联系。然后，我们提出了一个假设来解释 ELF 场与儿童白血病之间的联系，讨论了当前证据的优缺点，并提出了进一步研究的建议。
