Assessment of the neurotoxic potential of exposure to 50 Hz extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) in naïve and chemically stressed PC12 cells

• Increasing exposure to ELF-EMF raises concern about potential health effects.
• Effects of ELF-EMF exposure on neuronal Ca2+-homeostasis were investigated.
• We used naïve and chemically stressed pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells.
• Acute 50 Hz ELF-EMF exposure exerts no consistent or dose-dependent effects.
• Sub-chronic 50 Hz ELF-EMF exposure exerts no consistent or dose-dependent effects.

Increasing exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF), generated by power lines and electric appliances, raises concern about potential adverse health effects of ELF-EMF. The central nervous system is expected to be particularly vulnerable to ELF-EMF as its function strongly depends on electrical excitability. We therefore investigated effects of acute (30 min) and sub-chronic (48 h) exposure to 50 Hz ELF-EMF on naïve and chemically stressed pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells. The latter have higher levels of iron and/or reactive oxygen species (ROS) and display increased vulnerability to environmental insults. Effects of ELF-EMF on Ca2+-homeostasis, ROS production and membrane integrity were assessed using Fura-2 single cell fluorescence microscopy, H2-DCFDA and CFDA assays, respectively. Our data demonstrate that acute exposure of naïve PC12 cells to 50 Hz ELF-EMF up to 1000 μT fails to affect basal or depolarization-evoked [Ca2+]i. Moreover, sub-chronic ELF-EMF exposure up to 1000 μT has no consistent effects on Ca2+-homeostasis in naïve PC12 cells and does not affect ROS production and membrane integrity. Notably, in chemically stressed PC12 cells both acute and sub-chronic ELF-EMF exposure also failed to exert consistent effects on Ca2+-homeostasis, ROS production and membrane integrity. Our combined findings thus indicate that exposure to 50 Hz ELF-EMF up to 1000 μT, i.e. 10,000 times above background exposure, does not induce neurotoxic effects in vitro, neither in naïve nor in chemically stressed PC12 cells. Though our data require confirmation, e.g. in developing neuronal cells in vitro or (developing) animals, it appears that the neurotoxic risk of ELF-EMF exposure is limited.