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Exposure of rats to a 50‐Hz, 100 μTesla magnetic field does not affect the ex vivo production of interleukins by activated T or B lymphocytes
Author(s) -
Häußler Monika,
ThunBattersby Susanne,
Mevissen Meike,
Löscher Wolfgang
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
bioelectromagnetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.435
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-186X
pISSN - 0197-8462
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1521-186x(1999)20:5<295::aid-bem6>3.0.co;2-p
Subject(s) - ex vivo , dmba , spleen , in vivo , medicine , interleukin 2 , endocrinology , interleukin , stimulation , cytokine , immunology , biology , andrology , chemistry , cancer , carcinogenesis , microbiology and biotechnology
Two separate, independent experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of exposure of rats to a 50‐Hz linearly polarized, 100 μT magnetic field (MF) on the ex vivo production of interleukins (ILs) by mitogen‐stimulated splenic lymphocytes. IL‐1 and IL‐2 were determined by proliferation assays, using IL‐dependent murine T cell lines. In the first experiment, female Sprague‐Dawley rats were treated with 7,12‐dimethylbenz[ a ]anthracene (DMBA] at a dose of 20 mg per rat (four weekly gavage doses of 5 mg), and were either MF‐exposed or sham‐exposed for 14 weeks. This experimental protocol has previously been shown to result in a significant increase in breast cancer growth in response to MF exposure. Furthermore, MF exposure at 50–100 μT for 3 months was recently found to induce a suppressed ex vivo proliferation of splenic T cells in response to mitogen stimulation, which could be a result of reduced IL production of spleen lymphocytes. However, the present experiments failed to demonstrate any significant difference between MF‐ and sham‐exposed groups in production of IL‐1 by mitogen‐activated splenic B cells. In a second experiment, shorter MF exposure periods were studied with respect to IL production from mitogen‐stimulated B and T cells. Groups of rats were MF‐ or sham‐exposed for 1 day, 1 week, or 2 weeks, followed by preparation and activation of spleen lymphocytes. No significant difference in IL‐1 or IL‐2 production from stimulated B or T cells was seen. The data indicate that in vivo MF exposure of rats does not affect the ex vivo IL production of B or T lymphocytes, suggesting that the recently reported changes in T cell proliferation in response to MF exposure may not be mediated via alterations in B or T cell IL production. Bioelectromagnetics 20:295–305, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.