Life in zero magnetic field. III. Effect on zinc and copper in human bloodserum during in vitro aging

The purpose of the work was to further investigate the effect of zero magne tic field (ZMF) on the concentration of ions in the human blood compared to the effect of the normal geomagnetic field (GMF). We have investigated the total Zn and Cu concentrations in the blood serum during in vitro aging of blood. The investigation was carried out both on blood from healthy donors as well as from chronic bronchial asthma (BA) patients. Blood samples were kept for 48 hours in a Helmholtz coil compensating system to remove the st atic component of the geomagnetic field, at room temperature. We found that zinc concentrations in the plasma were not significantly influenced by the exposure to ZMF compared to GMF for both healthy and pathological samples. In contrast, copper concentration was found to be significantly sensitive to the magnetic environment. Healthy blood showed a slight loss of copper f rom the blood serum in GMF, which further increased in ZMF. BA pathology is characterized by four distinct types of disease, which showed both qualita tive and quantitative distinctive sensitivity to the magnetic environment, as compared to healthy blood. The aging effect appeared to be slowed down f or most of the BA types of pathologies. These results point to the sensitiv ity of ion binding to serum proteins and/or transport through cell membrane s in the magnetic environment, in our case in the absence of the normal geo magnetic field.