Effect of microwave fields on the growth rate and mitosis of a single cell in spirogyra algae

There is a growing concern about the effect of electric and magnetic fields in the microwave range frequencies on human health. The common microwave oven emits radiation in the frequency region of 2.45 GHz. On the other hand RF radiation (~27 MHz to 1 GHz, microwave diathermy) is beneficially used in physiotherapy for muscular relaxation. There are weapons based on microwave beams and microwaves are also used to accelerate the culture of some bacteria. In most of the cases the exact mechanism of effect of microwave fields on cells and organs (network of cells) is not known. Though this absence of clear understanding has not prevented the ever increasing discovery of many empirical effects and multiple uses, it seems there is a clear need of carefully collected data to delimit the range of two relevant parameters, amplitude and frequency, that may affect the normal functioning of a cell, an organ or an organism. The effect on an organ may be due to effect on the cells and due to effect on the inter-cell junctions and chemical transporters. We have started a systematic investigation of the effect of microwave fields on simple organisms whose cells are easy to see and analyse in-vivo by optical spectral microscopy and that can be easily subjected to microwave fields of known and variable strength of a given frequency. We have chosen common filamentary algae as the first target of our research for the following reasons: (1) the culture protocol of algae is easy to follow and implement; (2) the structure of this species is simply a one dimensional line-up of identical cells with each cell having common cell-walls with its two nearest neighbours; and (3) the two important parameters that characterise the functioning of cell, i.e., the growth rate and cell-division (mitosis) rate can be measured through quantitative imaging and image analysis. In this communication we describe the method of culturing the cells, the equipment details and some preliminary results.