Cytogenetic effects induced by extremely low frequency pulsed magnetic fields in lymphocytes from Turner's syndrome subjects

The cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay was applied to evaluate the genotoxic effect of in vitro exposure to extremely low frequency pulsed magnetic fields on peripheral blood lymphocytes from 10 subjects aged between 3 and 24 years and affected by Turner's syndrome, in comparison with 8 healthy donors aged between 3 and 22 years. We report a significant (p<0.01) micronucleus frequency increase in lymphocytes cultures from Turner's syndrome patients after 72 h exposure to pulsed magnetic fields with respect to unexposed cultures obtained from blood of the same subject. Such an increase of micronucleus frequency after exposure to pulsed magnetic fields was not observed in the control group, in accordance with our previous data in a large cohort of healthy subjects of different ages. The cytokinesis-block proliferation index was also evaluated both in cultures from Turner's syndrome patients and from healthy donors and resulted slightly higher in the exposed cultures, for both groups, even if the increase was not statistically significant. The relevance of these results for the studies on the biological effects of pulsed magnetic fields and for the related possible genotoxic risk in subgroups of human subjects characterized by particular genetic or pathological status is discussed