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Chick embryo development can be irreversibly altered by early exposure to weak extremely‐low‐frequency magnetic fields
Author(s) -
Ubeda Alejandro,
Trillo María A.,
Chacón Lucía,
Blanco María J.,
Leal Jocelyne
Publication year - 1994
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/bem.2250150503
Subject(s) - embryo , pulse (music) , embryogenesis , microsecond , incubation , extremely low frequency , biology , nuclear magnetic resonance , andrology , chemistry , magnetic field , medicine , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , optics , quantum mechanics , detector
Several reports have shown that weak, extremely‐low‐frequency (ELF), pulsed magnetic fields (PMFs) can adversely affect the early embryonic development of the chick. In this study, freshly fertilized chicken eggs were exposed during the first 48 h of postlaying incubation to PMFs with 100 Hz repetition rate, 1.0 μT peak‐to‐peak amplitude, and 500 μs pulse duration. Two different pulse waveforms were used, having rise and fall times of 85 μs (PMF‐A) or 2.1 μs (PMF‐B). It has been reported that, with 2 day exposure, these fields significantly increase the proportion of developmental abnormalities. In the present study, following exposure, the eggs were allowed to incubate for an additional 9 days in the absence of the PMFs. The embryos were taken out of the eggs and studied blind. Each of the two PMF‐exposed groups showed an excess in the percentage of developmental anomalies compared with the respective sham‐exposed samples. This excess of anomalies was not significant for the PMF‐A‐treated embryos ( P = 0.173), whereas it was significant for the PMF‐B‐exposed group ( P = 0.007), which showed a particularly high rate of early embryonic death. These results reveal that PMFs can induce irreversible developmental alterations and confirm that the pulse waveform can be a determinant factor in the embryonic response to ELF magnetic fields. The data also validate previous work based on the study of PMFs' effects at day 2 of embryonic development under field exposure. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.