Skin Fibroblasts from Individuals Self-Diagnosed as Electrosensitive Reveal Two Distinct Subsets with Delayed...

Electromagnetic hyper-sensitivity (EHS) and its causal link with radio-frequencies raise a major question of public health. In the frame of the clinical study DEMETER, 26 adult volunteers self-diagnosed as EHS-positive agreed to reply to a self-assessment questionnaire and to provide a skin biopsy sampling to establish a primary fibroblast cell line. The questionnaire and the biological data revealed, independently, 2 subsets of donors associated each with a low background, highly responsive (LBHR) and a high background, lowly responsive (HBLR) phenotype. A couple of subsets based on questionnaire data and based on the yield of spontaneous DNA double-strand breaks were found to be composed of the same donors at 64% identity. After exposure to X-rays, and application of anti-γH2AX, pATM, and MRE11 immunofluorescence, all the DEMETER fibroblasts (26/26) elicited a delayed radiation-induced ATM nucleoshuttling (RIANS). The use of RIANS biomarkers showed that the 2 phenotypes described above corresponded to DEMETER donors with a high risk of cancer (LBHR) or high risk of accelerated aging (HBLR). By exposing DEMETER cells to H₂O₂ followed by an antioxidative agent, we confirmed that EHS may be related to the management of DNA strand breaks. A preliminary molecular model of EHS inspired by the RIANS model was proposed.