Short cycles of both static and pulsed electromagnetic fields have no effect on the induction of cytokines by peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

We evaluated the effect of short cycles of static and pulsed electromagnetic field exposure on the eventual activation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The cells were subjected to three 15-min cycles of EMF, each exposure being followed by 105 min without a field, for a total of 6 hr. The results clearly demonstrate that the proliferative responses of both normal cells and cells stimulated with 1 microg/ml phytohemagglutinin were not distinguishable from control cells not exposed to EMF. Moreover, although the production of interleukin-2, interferon gamma and tumor necrosis factor alpha increased during the first 48 hr of incubation, the values remained unchanged with respect to controls. This indicates that brief exposure to an electromagnetic field has no significant effect on peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The comparison between biological activity and the cytokine antigen present in our samples indicated that the recovery of antigen corresponded to an equal recovery of biological activity, suggesting the absence of either qualitative differences in these proteins or the impairment of transcriptional and translational processes.