Extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields do not affect DNA damage and gene expression profiles of yeast and human lymphocytes

We studied the effects of extremely low frequency (50 Hz) (ELF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) on peripheral human blood lymphocytes and DBY747 Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain as models of eukaryotic cells. Graded exposure to 50 Hz magnetic flux density (MFD) was obtained with a Helmholtz coil system set at 1, 10 or 100 µT for 18 h. EMF effects on DNA were studied with the single gel cell electrophoresis assay (comet assay) on lymphocytes. Gene expression profiles of EMF-exposed human and yeast cells were evaluated with DNA microarrays containing 13,971 and 6,212 oligonucleotides, respectively. After exposure to EMF we did not observe an increase in the amount of strand breaks or DNA oxidated bases relative to controls, or variation in gene expression profiles. The results suggest that ELF-EMF do not induce DNA damage nor affect gene expression in these two different eukaryotic cell systems.