DNA fragmentation induced by Intense Burst Sinusoidal Electric Fields

It is a well known fact that intense electric fields with frequencies exceeding MHz ranges cause intracellular effect to mammalian cells. We have used the Intense Burst Sinusoidal Electric Field (IBSEF) which is narrow band spectra, to put the electrical energy into biological cells efficiently. We have experimentally demonstrated here the presence of intense electric fields inside the cell membrane, which is achieved by frequency of 100 MHz, amplitude up to 200 kV/m and duration of 200 μs, induces DNA fragmentation to Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. The DNA damage was investigated by means of comet assay method. Additionally, we have performed the agarose gel electrophoresis method for human genomic DNAs exposed to IBSEF with various frequencies, electric field strength up to 400 kV/m, and duration of 5 ms. The electrophoresis did not show significant changes between the IBSEF treated and untreated samples. The results imply that IBSEF does not break the DNA physically, and the possibility of IBSEF being a trigger to biological reaction connected to the DNA fragmentation, such as apoptosis.