Z Naturforsch [C]. 1978 Jan-Feb;33(1-2):15-22.Links

Nonthermal effects of millimeter microwaves on yeast growth.

Grundler W, Keilmann F.

Weak microwave irradiation of aqueous yeast cultures was found to affect their growth rate in a frequency-selective manner. Depending on frequency (near 42 GHz), both increases and decreases of the growth rate were observed. The resonance bandwidths are of the order of 0.01 GHz. Simple thermal effects can be excluded. These findings support theoretical predictions of coherent molecular oscillations activating metabolic processes.

Determination of a thermal equivalent of millimeter microwaves in living cells.

Dardalhon M, Averbeck D, Berteaud AJ.

Recent microwave experiments have shown frequency dependent influences on the growth rate of bacteria. To determine whether microwaves are able to affect growth (or to induce lesions in cellular DNA of yeast cells), experiments were performed with millimeter microwaves at frequencies between 70 and 75 GHz. Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells were irradiated on millipore filter discs placed on agar plates in open petri dishes. A diploid strain of yeast (D5, Zimmerman), that is sensitive to genetic insult was used to study the effects of temperature and of microwave irradiation on cell survival, induction of mitotic recombination, and induction of cytoplasmic "petite" mutations. No evidence of altered survival, impaired function, or structural injury was seen at either frequency, even at power densities as high as 60 mW/cm2. Conventional heating had no deleterious effects until temperatures of specimens exceeded 50 degrees C. In addition, two haploid strains of yeast of opposite mating type were compared with respect to temperature and microwave treatment for formation of zygotes. The elevation of temperature due to the microwave treatment at 60 mW/cm2 and 2 mm distance was estimated to correspond to 3 degrees C.

J Microw Power. 1980 Jun;15(2):75-80.

Z Naturforsch [C]. 1989 Sep-Oct;44(9-10):863-6.Links

Resonant microwave effect on locally fixed yeast microcolonies.

Grundler W, Keilmann F.

Gesellschaft für Strahlen- und Umweltforschung, Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

The microwave influence on the growth of yeast cells is studied in a novel experimental set-up designed to observe individual cells growing for several division cycles. The results are in accordance with resonant microwave-induced growth stimulation as observed in our earlier set-up where the turbidity of a stirred suspension of cells was used as the measure of growth. The new experimental set-up is suited to decide on the proposed triplet mechanism of resonant microwave biological effects.

 

Bioelectrochem Bioenerg. 1999 Feb;48(1):177-80.Links

The effects of radiofrequency fields on cell proliferation are non-thermal.

Velizarov S, Raskmark P, Kwee S.

Institute of Chemical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria.

The number of reports on the effects induced by radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields and microwave (MW) radiation in various cellular systems is still increasing. Until now no satisfactory mechanism has been proposed to explain the biological effects of these fields. One of the current theories is that heat generation by RF/MW is the cause, in spite of the fact that a great number of studies under isothermal conditions have reported significant cellular changes after exposure to RF/MW. Therefore, this study was undertaken to investigate which effect MW radiation from these fields in combination with a significant change of temperature could have on cell proliferation. The experiments were performed on the same cell line, and with the same exposure system as in a previous work [S. Kwee, P. Raskmark, Changes in cell proliferation due to environmental non-ionizing radiation: 2. Microwave radiation, Bioelectrochem. Bioenerg., 44 (1998), pp. 251-255]. The field was generated by signal simulation of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) of 960 MHz. Cell cultures, growing in microtiter plates, were exposed in a specially constructed chamber, a Transverse Electromagnetic (TEM) cell. The Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) value for each cell well was calculated for this exposure system. However, in this study the cells were exposed to the field at a higher or lower temperature than the temperature in the field-free incubator i.e., the temperature in the TEM cell was either 39 or 35 +/- 0.1 degrees C. The corresponding sham experiments were performed under exactly the same experimental conditions. The results showed that there was a significant change in cell proliferation in the exposed cells in comparison to the non-exposed (control) cells at both temperatures. On the other hand, no significant change in proliferation rate was found in the sham-exposed cells at both temperatures. This shows that biological effects due to RF/MW cannot be attributed only to a change of temperature. Since the RF/MW induced changes were of the same order of magnitude at both temperatures and also comparable to our previous results under isothermal conditions at 37 degrees C, cellular stress caused by electromagnetic fields could initiate the changes in cell cycle reaction rates. It is widely accepted that certain classes of heat-shock proteins are involved in these stress reactions.

Phys Med Biol. 2002 Nov 7;47(21):3831-9. Links

Preliminary results on the non-thermal effects of 200-350 GHz radiation on the growth rate of S. cerevisiae cells in microcolonies.

Hadjiloucas S, Chahal MS, Bowen JW.

Department of Cybernetics, The University of Reading, Whiteknights, RG6 6AY, Berkshire, UK.

We report preliminary results from studies of biological effects induced by non-thermal levels of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation. Exponentially growing Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells grown on dry media were exposed to electromagnetic fields in the 200-350 GHz frequency range at low power density to observe possible non-thermal effects on the microcolony growth. Exposure to the electromagnetic field was conducted over 2.5 h. The data from exposure and control experiments were grouped into either large-, medium- or small-sized microcolonies to assist in the accurate assessment of growth. The three groups showed significant differences in growth between exposed and control microcolonies. A statistically significant enhanced growth rate was observed at 341 GHz. Growth rate was assessed every 30 min via time-lapse photography. Possible interaction mechanisms are discussed, taking into account Frohlich's hypothesis.

Mikrobiol Z. 2004 May-Jun;66(3):51-7.Links

[Effect of radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation on physiological features of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain UCM Y-517]

[Article in Russian]

Voĭchuk SI, Podgorskiĭ VS, Gromozova EN.

Effect of electromagnetic radiation (40.68 MHz) on growth characteristics of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain UCM Y-517 has been studied. Reliable increase of the specific growth rate (by 7-15%) and change of duration of growth phases as a result of irradiation of yeast population has been shown. The EMR effect has been found to depend on physiological state of the irradiated cells and composition of the irradiation performance medium: reliable effects were found only for the cells preliminarily grown on the dense nutrition medium in the late phase of delayed growth or on achieving the stationary growth phase. The role of radiation term and power as well as of temperature factor in EMR effect on the cells is discussed. It has been noted that the dependence of specific growth rate of yeast on the initial density of cells population acquire the nonlinear character as affected by EMR of radiofrequency range.