EFFECTS OF 50 Hz MAGNETIC FIELD EXPOSURE ON PROTEIN TYROSINE PHOSPHORYLATION IN CULTURED CELLS

Abstract

Protein phosphorylation is an extremely important and widely used mechanism of cellular regulation. Here, the effects of 50 Hz magnetic fields (MFs) on tyrosine phosphorylation were studied. A Chinese hamster lung (CHL) cell line was exposed to 50 Hz magnetic fields at two intensities (0.4 mT and 0.8 mT) for different exposure durations, and western blot analysis was used to measure the degree of tyrosine phosphorylation of cellular proteins. Results showed that both 0.4 mT and 0.8 mT 50 Hz magnetic fields could affect the protein tyrosine phosphorylation in cultured cells. Both intensities could affect the tyrosine phosphorylation of 38 and 97.4 kDa proteins. In addition, 0.4 mT could affect tyrosine phosphorylation of 61.7, 105, and 112 kDa proteins, and 0.8 mT affected the tyrosine phosphorylation of 79 and 150 kDa proteins. Moreover, all the tyrosine phosphorylation changes of these proteins were time-dependent. The findings from this study demonstrated that under these experimental conditions, there was evidence that protein tyrosine phosphorylation was a possible process for ELF-EMF producing bioeffects.