Electromagnetic field affects bacterial intracellular proteins expression and bacterial envelope permeability

• Published in: The FASEB journal Vol. 25; no. S1; p. 1048.2
• Main Authors: Ramadan, Wiam, Jebai, Fatima, Joumaa, Wissam H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology 01-04-2011
• ISSN: 0892-6638; 1530-6860
• DOI: 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.1048.2

The use of mobile communications is increasing, which also increases the population's exposure to electromagnetic field (EMF) signals. Questions of safety and possible biological effects stay unanswered. Our study, based on E. Coli strain TB1, have shown that, after 2 days of permanent exposure to EMF (frequency: 960 MHz, power: 10mW, E=6V/m and controlled room temperature: 23–25°C), no effect was observed at the level of bacterial growth curve, latent time and duplication time (compared with sham exposure). Although 10 days of bacterial exposure have not shown a significant modification in growth curve and latent time, an increase by 8% in the bacterial duplication time was observed. The capacity of bacterial membrane to leak proteins to the extracellular medium was studied by dosage of extracellular proteins concentration. Results show that, 2 days of exposure induces a slight significant increase in the extracellular proteins concentration but no significant effect was observed after 10 days. The dosage of intracellular proteins has shown that, 10 days of EMF exposure increase proteins expression by 66% without significant modifications after 2 days. These results indicate that long term exposure of bacteria to EMF could induce an adaptation mechanism which could be related to an increase in the intracellular proteins expression and also to modifications in the bacterial envelope permeability.