Extremely low frequency magnetic fields in cell culture incubators may contribute to the variability in results from in vitro studies and should be taken into consideration.

PMID: 

Cell Biol Int. 2009 Jul ;33(7):755-7. Epub 2009 Apr 23. PMID: 19393752

Abstract Title: 

Background ELF magnetic fields in incubators: a factor of importance in cell culture work.

Abstract: 

Extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields in cell culture incubators have been measured. Values of the order of tens of muT were found which is in sharp contrast to the values found in our normal environment (0.05-0.1microT). There are numerous examples of biological effects found after exposure to MF at these levels, such as changes in gene expression, blocked cell differentiation, inhibition of the effect of tamoxifen, effects on chick embryo development, etc. We therefore recommend that people working with cell culture incubators check for the background magnetic field and take this into account in performing their experiments, since this could be an unrecognised factor of importance contributing to the variability in the results from work with cell cultures.

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