Abstract
Following an increase in the use of electric appliances that can generate 50 or 60 Hz electromagnetic fields, concerns have intensified regarding the biological effects of extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMFs) on human health. Previous epidemiological studies have suggested the carcinogenic potential of environmental exposure to ELF-EMFs, specifically at 50 or 60 Hz. However, the biological mechanism facilitating the effects of ELF-EMFs remains unclear. Cellular studies have yielded inconsistent results regarding the biological effects of ELF-EMFs. The inconsistent results might have been due to diverse cell types. In our previous study, we indicated that 1.5 mT, 60 Hz ELF-EMFs will cause G1 arrest through the activation of the ATM-Chk2-p21 pathway in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether ELF-EMFs cause similar effects in a distinct epidermal keratinocyte, primary normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK), by using the same ELF-EMF exposure system and experimental design. We observed that ELF-EMFs exerted no effects on cell growth, cell proliferation, cell cycle distribution, and the activation of ATM signaling pathway in NHEK cells. We demonstrated that the 2 epidermal keratinocytes responded to ELF-EMFs differently. To further validate this finding, we simultaneously exposed the NHEK and HaCaT cells to ELF-EMFs in the same incubator for 168 h and observed the cell growths. The simultaneous exposure of the two cell types results showed that the NHEK and HaCaT cells exhibited distinct responses to ELF-EMFs. Thus, we confirmed that the biological effects of ELF-EMFs in epidermal keratinocytes are cell type specific. Our findings may partially explain the inconsistent results of previous studies when comparing results across various experimental models.