Magnetic fields (MFs) from domestic
power sources have been implicated as being a potential risk to human health. A number of epidemiological studies have found a significant link between exposure to MFs and increased rates of
cancers. There have also been a number of in vivo and in vitro studies reporting effects of MFs in
animal disease models and on the expression or activity of a range of
proteins. In the past decade, our group proposed that
atherosclerosis may have an autoimmune component, with
heat shock protein 60 (Hsp60) expressed in endothelial cells as the dominant
autoantigen. A number of stressors have been shown to induce the expression of Hsp60, including the classical risk factors for
atherosclerosis. We were interested to see if the exposure of endothelial cells to an MF elicited increased expression of Hsp60, as has been reported previously for Hsp70. The present work describes the exposure of endothelial cells to domestic
power supply (50 Hz) MFs at an intensity of 700 microT. The results from our system indicate that cultured endothelial cells exposed to a high intensity of MF either alone or in combination with classical heat stress show no effects on the expression of Hsp60 at either the messenger
ribonucleic acid or the
protein level. As such, there is no evidence that exposure to extremely low-frequency MF would be expected to increase the expression of Hsp60 and therefore the initiation or progression of
atherosclerosis.