Submitted March 9, 2006
Returned for revision April 24, 2006
Accepted July 17, 2006
Toxicology
50 Hz Electromagnetic Fields Induce gammaH2AX Foci
Formation in Mouse Preimplantation Embryos In Vitro
Qiong Luo ,
Jun Yang ,
Qun-Li Zeng ,
Xiao-Ming Zhu ,
Yu-Li Qian ,
and
He-Feng Huang *
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: huanghefg{at}hotmail.com.
Abstract
Effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on DNA damage in
mammals are still controversial. In the present study, the
effects of EMF on DNA damage in preimplantation mouse
embryos in vitro were investigated using gammaH2AX foci
formation, a new sensitive indicator of detecting DNA
double strand breaks (DSBs). The data obtained emonstrated
that EMF decreased the cleavage rate of preimplantation
mouse embryos. This decreasing effect of EMF was related
to the DNA-damaging effect indicated by the induction of
gammaH2AX foci formation in preimplantation mouse embryos.
The inducing effects of EMF on gammaH2AX foci formation 31
could be inhibited by the treatment of noise MF or
wortmannin, a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) family
inhibitor. Furthermore, the data obtained also showed that
EMF could activate DNA damage repair mechanism by
recruiting repair factor- Rad50 to the damaged DNA sites
to repair the corresponding DNA damage. These findings
suggest that EMF could cause DNA damage in preimplantation
embryos in vitro and that the adverse effects of EMF on
the development might at least partly act through DNA
damage. The DNA damage induced by EMF could be at least
partly repaired by the natural activation of DNA damage
repair mechanism or prevented by the simultaneous
treatment of noise MF.
Key words:
Embryo •
Environment •
Toxicology
