Cytoprotective Effect of 120 Hz Electromagnetic Fields on Early Hepatocarcinogenesis: Experimental and Theoretical Findings

Abstract

Carcinogenesis induced chemically produces mutations affecting standard cells ’ behavior. An electrophilicattackonDNA result as the primarycharacteristic.Once xenobiotics are adminis- trated to mammals they suffer a metabolic activation in the liver through cytochrome P450 (CYP450)enzymes,convertingthemtotoxiccompounds,generatingoxidativestress(OS),andburstingelectrophilesnearthesiteofoxidation.CYP450areelectroncarrierproteinsthat generate spin-correlated radical pair (RP) intermediaries. An extremely low-frequencyelectro- magnetic field (ELF-EMF) can modulate the spin-flip conversion between singlet and triplet spinstatesoftheRPpopulations,modifyingtheproductformationduringtheirmetabolization. Experimentally,weinducehepaticcancerchemically;wefoundthatELF-EMFinhibitsboththe number and area of preneoplastic lesions by more than 50%. Furthermore, theoretically, we develop a quantum mechanical model based on the RP mechanism (RPM) in the Haberkorn approximation to explain the cytoprotective effects of ELF-EMF. Here, we review the status of theaction ’ smechanismofELF-EMFonourresearchonearlyhepatocarcinogenesis.