Studies of Weak, ELF Electromagnetic Fields Effects on the Early Embryonic Development

摘要

Studies of the embryonic response to weak changes of the electromagnetic environment were performed, in vivo, on chick embryos. Fertile eggs were exposed to weak, extremely low frequencies, bipolar, pulsed magnetic fields during their first 48 hours of incubation. The development of the embryos was analyzed at the end of the exposure an incubation period. This analysis consisted of a double blind description of the morphological characteristics for five organo-genetic systems: Cephalic and truncal nervous systems, somites, heart and extra-embryonary vessels. In each experiment, a control sample was simultaneously incubated, but not exposed to the EMF and analyzed together with the experimental group. The effects of the exposure were estimated comparing the proportions of normal and not normal embryos in the two groups. The different studies have shown that weak, ELF magnetic fields can induce an increased incidence of abnormal development. 1) The effects of the fields lead to the embryonic death, occurring during the first weak after the exposure, or to malformations in alive organisms. 2) The developmental stage of the embryos at the starting time of the EMF exposure seems to be determinant in the embryonic response. The results of our experiments included in the Henhouse project have shown that the unipolar PMF used in this study, did not change significantly the proportions of normal and not normal embryos. (aw)