Effects of low-intensity nanosecond pulsed electromagnetic field on PC3 cells

The effects of the electromagnetic field on organism have been the issue concerned by environmental, electrical, biological, medical and related subjects. From the perspective of the dielectric properties of organisms, the pulsed electromagnetic field may cause a stronger influence on organism. A nanosecond pulsed generator was established to generate the electromagnetic circumstances. The main parameters of nanosecond electromagnetic field are that the rise time is less than 15ns, the duration time is adjustable and the magnetic induction intensity reaches 6mT. The prostate cancer cell (PC3) and human fibroblast cells (IMR-90) are taken as the researched samples. The nanosecond electromagnetic field with different intensity and different times were imposed on the cells, and the cellular activity, mitochondrial membrane potential and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were tested. The results showed that when the duration time is 50ns and 50 times per second for 6h, the cellular activity of PC3 increased along with the increase of the magnetic field intensity, 78% at 0.14mT whereas 106% at 1mT. The mitochondrial membrane potential of PC3 decreased along with the increase of the magnetic field intensity, which is 40% higher than that of control group when the magnetic field intensity is 0.14mT. In the case of reactive oxygen species test, the date showed that the ROS is 80% higher than the control group. However the electromagnetic field with the same parameters helps IMR-90 to withstand the injury caused by room temperature. These experimental results demonstrate that the effects of nanosecond pulsed electromagnetic fields on cells have regular pattern and vary with different parameters. This research may contribute to studying the mechanism of the biological effects on the basis of the biological dielectric model.