The Growth of Human Cells Under Background Magnetic Field of Varying Intensity: Comparison of the Sensitivity of Normal and Cancer Cells

Geomagnetic conditions in modern urban environments are substantially distorted and don’t represent the natural background for humans. In most cases, this refers to magnetic fields up to 1 mT, classified as weak magnetic fields. Despite the practical relevance, this range remains insufficiently investigated, and the available data are fragmented and contradictory. We demonstrated that the proliferation rate of normal human cells (HEK-293T), unlike cancer cell lines (HeLa and A-431), is sensitive to the intensity of background weak magnetic field. A decrease in the geomagnetic background led to a significant slowdown in cell growth. To assess the modifying impact of an additional stress factor on cellular sensitivity to magnetic fields, we subjected the cells to serum deprivation. This led to an amplification of the effect observed in normal cells; moreover, the cells under stressful conditions demonstrated the sensitivity to both a decrease and an increase of background magnetic field