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Evaluation of the Potential In Vitro Antiproliferative Effects of Millimeter Waves at Some Therapeutic Frequencies on RPMI 7932 Human Skin Malignant Melanoma Cells

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Abstract

The potential antiproliferative effects of low power millimeter waves (MMWs) at 42.20 and 53.57 GHz on RPMI 7932 human skin melanoma cells were evaluated in vitro in order to ascertain if these two frequencies, comprised in the range of frequency used in millimeter wave therapy, would have a similar effect when applied in vivo to malignant melanoma tumours. Cells were exposed for 1 h exposure/day and to repeated exposure up to a total of four treatments. Plane wave incident power densities <1 mW/cm2 were used in the MMWs-exposure experiments so that the radiations did not cause significant thermal effects. Numerical simulations of Petri dish reflectivity were made using the equations for the reflection coefficient of a multilayered system. Such analysis showed that the power densities transmitted into the aqueous samples were ≤0.3 mW/cm2. Two very important and general biological endpoints were evaluated in order to study the response of melanoma cells to these radiations, i.e. cell proliferation and cell cycle. Herein, we show that neither cell doubling time nor the cell cycle of RPMI 7932 cells was affected by the frequency of the GHz radiation and duration of the exposure, in the conditions above reported.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Regione Calabria (POR 2000/2006, misura 3.16, progetto PROSICA) and Lega Italiana per la Lotta Contro i Tumori-LILT-Sezione Cosenza. AB is grateful to Dr. Giuseppe Acri for the measurements of the electromagnetic background and to Y. Koshurinov for providing some technical data on the MMW source generators and on the propagation pattern of the conical antenna.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Calabria, Via P. Bucci, Cubo 17/D, Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy

    Amerigo Beneduci

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Correspondence to Amerigo Beneduci.

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Beneduci, A. Evaluation of the Potential In Vitro Antiproliferative Effects of Millimeter Waves at Some Therapeutic Frequencies on RPMI 7932 Human Skin Malignant Melanoma Cells. Cell Biochem Biophys 55, 25–32 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-009-9053-8

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