The Effects of Physical Factors on Bacterial Cell Proliferation

Abstract

In the present work there have been studied the frequency-dependent effects of mechanical vibration (MV) and extremely low frequency electromagnetic field (ELF EMF) on bacterial cell proliferation. It was suggested that the aqua medium can serve as a target through which the biological effect of MV and ELF EMF on microbes could be realized. To check this hypothesis the frequency-dependent effect (2, 4, 6, 8, 10 Hz) of both MV (8 mm displacement) and EMF (0.4 mT intensity) on the bacterial cell proliferation were studied in both cases where the microbes were in the culture media during the exposure and when culture media was preliminarily exposed to the ELF EMF and MV prior to the addition of bacteria. For investigating the cell proliferation a tritiated thymidine ([3H]dT) assay was used. This study demonstrated that 4 and 8 Hz EMF and MV have different biological effects on bacterial cell proliferation.