The effect of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields following on upregulation of miR-21 and miR-29 in gastric cancer cell line

AIM: Extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields affect miRNAs expression in cancer cell. In this study, electromagnetic fields exposed to low frequency were used to compare miR-21 and miR-29 expressions in a gastric cancer cell line. BACKGROUND: It has been recently suggested that the low frequency electromagnetic fields probably function as a treatment for cancers. METHODS: A cultured cell line of gastric cancer was exposed to an electromagnetic radiation system. The cell line was assigned to 4 groups under continuous and discontinuous radiations of 0.25 and 2.5 ml Tesla field strength. Then, the groups were compared with a non-radiation control group. Later, RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis were prepared for miR-21 and miR-29. Real Time PCR method was used to determine how expressions of these two microRNAs differ. Finally, the results were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: The percentage of cell viability in the electromagnetic field radiation experienced a significant decrease compared to that of the control group. In addition, expression of miRNA-21 and miRNA-29 had a significant increase as the strength of the electromagnetic field radiations was on an upward trend. Similarly, the percentage of cell viability saw a significant decline in the upregulation of miRNA-21 and miRNA-29 regardless of radiation types. CONCLUSION: Findings of this study showed the therapeutic effect of low frequency electromagnetic fields on the gastric cancer cell line. They also indicated that novel biomarkers (miRNA-21 and miRNA-29) could be proposed as potential treatments of gastric cancer, but the results are required to be well established by future studies.