Experimental study of the biological effects of industrial frequency electric fields under shielding conditions on individual hematological parameters of rats

Introduction. The power frequency electric and magnetic fields in occupational conditions is characterized by widespread prevalence, according to relevant to study the possible negative power frequency biological effects in exceeding maximum permissible levels exposure with an assessment of the biological effect of such factor in conditions of ensuring human protection with personal protective equipment.The study aims to power frequency biological effect experimental study of individual hematological parameters of the rats under shielding conditions with protective materials and without its use.Materials and methods. Power frequency electric field biological effects investigation using shielding materials in personal protective equipment was on Wistar male rats. The electric field strength in the exposed groups was 50 kV/m. Induced currents simulated using Sim4Life v9.0 (SPEAG AG, Switzerland) by exposed numerical heterogeneous laboratory rat phantoms.Results. The experimental results shown significant decrease number of erythrocytes and lymphocytes in the blood of animals in Group 3 (exposure) relative to Groups 1 (screen + exposure) and 2 (screen + control), but increase in the neutrophil content after 4 weeks exposure. An increased leukoerythroblastic ratio was observed against decreased eosinophil, basophilic, and oxyphilic erythroblast counts after the power frequency fourth week exposure for Group 3 compared to animals of Groups 1 and 2. The induced currents distribution in some organs and tissue rat phantom using low-frequency simulation revealed a relationship between power frequency electric field exposure and the observed biological effects.Limitations of the study. The limitation in the number of rats studied is due to the difficulties of providing study.Conclusions. Power frequency electric field biological effect experimental investigation showed that 50 kV/m power frequency electric field exposure activated adaptive-compensatory processes in the blood system. Shielding with protective material revealed the reducing effect exposure on the main hematological parameters of peripheral blood and bone marrow, which is confirmed by simulation.Ethics. The experimental study on animals approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution "Izmerov Research Institute of Occupational health" (No. 4 of the meeting of the Local Ethics Committee of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution "Izmerov Research Institute of Occupational health" dated April 17, 2024).Contributions:Perov S.Yu. — research concept and design, collection and processing of material, writing, editing;Dremin A.I. — collecting and processing material, writing text;Kalacheva A.E. — collection and processing of the material.Funding. The study had no funding.Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.Received: 15.12.2025 / Accepted: 23.12.2025 / Published: 15.02.2026