Figure 1

Flow cytometry analysis of the effect of EMF exposure on CD11b expression in N9 cells. Microglia were pretreated with (+) or without (-) P6 (10 μM) for 1 h and then exposed to 2.45 GHz EMF (+) or sham-exposed (-) for 20 min. Untreated cultures were used as a control. Cells were incubated with rat anti-mouse monoclonal antibody CD11b or isotype control for 1 h at 4°C and then incubated with goat anti-rat IgG-DyLight^®549 for 1 h at 4°C in the dark. In total, 10,000 cells were labeled (CD11b; rat monoclonal, 1:100; rat IgG2b isotype control, 1:100; DyLight^®549-conjugated goat anti-rat secondary, 1:200), gated and analyzed by flow cytometry. Histogram overlays show the expression of CD11b. The dashed lines represent the isotype control. (A) Representative histograms for CD11b expression at 3 h after EMF exposure. (B) Representative histograms for CD11b expression at 12 h after EMF exposure. (C) Mean fluorescence intensity of CD11b shows averaged values from three independent experiments as normalized to the control. CD11b expression was found to be significantly increased at 3 h after EMF exposure; a slight but significant increase was still apparent after P6 pretreatment. CD11b expression was found to be strongly expressed at 12 h after EMF exposure; this increase was significantly inhibited by P6 at 12 h after EMF exposure. Results are presented as mean ± S.D. of three independent experiments. Statistical comparisons to control are indicated by * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01.