Cell-cycle kinetics of friend erythroleukemia cells in a magnetically shielded room and in a low-frequency/low-intensity magnetic field

This work was undertaken to compare the behavior of Friend erythroleukemia cells in a solenoid, where the magnetic field was 70 mu T at 50 Hz (plus 45 mu T DC of Earth) with that of the same cells in a magnetically shielded room, when the magnetic field was attenuated to 20 nT DC and 2.5 pT AC. The control laboratory magnetic field corresponded to 45 mu T DC and a stray 50 Hz field below 0.2 mu T. The culture growth cycle of cells maintained inside the solenoid was slightly accelerated compared with that of cells maintained outside the solenoid (P < .05). This stimulation probably depended on sensitivity of cell cycle to a magnetic field, because, inside the solenoid, the percentage of G(1) cells slightly increased during the culture growth cycle, whereas that of S cells slightly decreased. Acceleration of growth was detected soon after exposure of the cultures to the solenoid field, and growth did not change further if the action of this field continued for a long time, accounting for adaptation. The solenoid field also caused a small increase of cell survival without influencing cell volume. By contrast, the culture growth cycle of cells maintained inside the magnetically shielded room was slightly decelerated compared with that of cells maintained outside the room (P < .05). The essential absence of any field inside the magnetically shielded room also caused a small increase of cell volume, whereas, during the culture growth cycle, the percentage of G(1) cells decreased, and that of S cells increased. The majority of these events did not change in cells induced to differentiate hemoglobin through dimethylsulfoxide. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.