A Role for the magnetic field in the radiation-induced efflux of calcium ions from brain tissue in vitro

✍ Scribed by C. F. Blackman; S. G. Benane; J. R. Rabinowitz; D. E. House; W. T. Joines

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 702 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0197-8462
• DOI: 10.1002/bem.2250060402

✦ Synopsis

Two independent laboratories have demonstrated that electromagnetic radiation at specific frequencies can cause a change in the efflux of calcium ions from brain tissue in vitro. In a local geomagnetic field (LGF) at a density of 38 microTesla (pT), 15and 45-Hz electromagnetic signals (40 V,,lm in air) have been shown to induce a change in the efflux of calcium ions from the exposed tissues, whereas 1-and 30-Hz signals do not. We now show that the effective 15-Hz signal can be rendered ineffective when the LGF is reduced to 19 pT with Helmholtz coils. In addition, the ineffective 30-Hz signal becomes effective when the LGF is changed to k25.3 pT or to +76 pT. These results demonstrate that the net intensity of the LGF is an important variable. The results appear to describe a resonance-like relationship in which the frequency of the electromagnetic field that can induce a change in efflux is proportional to a product of LGF density and an index, 2n + 1, where n = 0,l. These phenomenological findings may provide a basis for evaluating the apparent lack of reproducibility of biological effects caused by low-intensity extremelylow-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic signals. In future investigations of this phenomenon, the LGF vector should be explicitly described. If the underlying mechanism involves a general property of tissue, then research conducted in the ambient electromagnetic environment (50160 Hz) may be subjected to unnoticed and uncontrolled influences, depending on the density of the LGF.