[Effect oh millimeter waves on the immune system in mice with experimental tumors]

The effect of low-level millimeter fractionated radiation on the production of tumor necrosis factor, intreleukin-2, interleukine-3, and nitric oxide and on the activity of natural killer cells and proliferation of T and B lymphocytes in mice was studied. Cell activity was measured in four groups of male Balb/c mice (control, exposed, tumor-bearing unexposed, and exposed tumor-bearing animals) within 30 days of tumoral growth and microwave exposure (42.2 GHz, 10 Hz amplitude modulation, 0.5 microW/cm2, 1.5 h daily). A significant increase in the production of tumor necrosis factor and nitric oxide and in the activity of natural killer cells was observed at the early stage of tumor development; this effect was considered as adaptive response. In healthy mice, millimeter radiation produced both stimulating and immunodepressive effects. The changes were nonmonotonous; as the exposure duration was increased, the stimulating effect became weaker and on day 30 it was not observed. Irradiation of tumor-bearing mice did not induce any significant changes in the activity of cells compared to unirradiated tumor-bearing animals. Moreover, exposure to millimeter waves impaired some characteristics of cell immunity in tumor-bearing mice. It was concluded that low-intensity millimeter waves do not increase the resistance against tumor as it was shown earlier in our experiments with centimeter waves.