Effects of 1Hz 100mT electromagnetic field on apoptosis induction and Bax/Bcl-2 expression ratio in breast cancer cells

Breast cancer is the most common metastatic malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer death in women. Recently, extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMFs) seem to modulate the rate of proliferation and enhance apoptosis and are considered as an emerging approach to cancer therapy. Despite recent success in the electromagnetic fields, the results are still neither definitive nor even contradictory.

In this study, induction of apoptosis was considered as one of the possible mechanisms of ELF-EMFs on cancer inhibition. Breast cancer cell lines were exposed to a 1 Hz, 100 mT ELF-EMF (2 h/day) for five days. The apoptosis rate of both the exposure and sham exposure groups was determined by flow cytometry. The expression levels of Bax and Bcl-2 were evaluated by real-time PCR.

The mRNA expression levels of Bax were increased; while the expression of Bcl-2 showed a decrease in MDA-MB231 cells exposed to 1Hz EMF compared with sham exposure. Moreover, the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 was significantly increased in comparison to the sham exposure. The increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio induces cell apoptosis.

It is suggested that ELF-EMF is a new adjuvant therapeutical method that may contribute to anti-cancer and cancer therapy research.