Effects of Weak ELF on E. Coli Cells and Human Lymphocytes: Role of Genetic, Physiological, and Physical Parameters

Abstract

An increasing number of investigations has shown that weak ELF alternating (AC) magnetic fields (MF) affect biological systems (Goodman et al., 1995). The effects of AC fields have been observed within relatively narrow frequency bands at so-called resonance frequencies (Smith et al., 1987, Belyaev et al., 1994; Blackman et al., 1994; Prato et al., 1995). Relatively narrow windows were also observed in the amplitude dependencies of the AC field effects (Liboff et al., 1987; Lednev, 1991; Blackman et al., 1994; Prato et al., 1995). It has been found by Blackman et al.(1985) that the ambient static magnetic fields (DC) can significantly influence the effects of alternating magnetic fields. The importance of static MF for the ELF effects was confirmed in several papers (Lednev, 1991; Belyaev et al., 1994; Blackman et al., 1994; Fitzsimmons et al., 1994; Prato et al., 1995). Therefore, the effects of weak ELF are observed under specific combinations of DC/AC exposure. Several physical mechanisms were suggested to explain these observations (Liboff et al., 1987; Chiabrera et al., 1991; Lednev, 1991; Belyaev et al., 1994; Binhi, 1997). The dependence of ELF effects on some physiological factors such as concentration of ions during exposure of cells has been shown (Smith et al., 1987; Karabakhtsian et al., 1994).