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Purpose: To investigate the effect of daily exposure in utero to static magnetic fields during prenatal development on germ cell development and fertility of exposed offspring in adulthood., Materials and Methods: Mice were exposed daily in utero to different static magnetic field strengths at the bore entrance or in the isocenter of 1.5 T and 7 T MRI systems during the entire course of prenatal development., Results: In utero-exposed male mice revealed no effect of magnetic field strength on weight of testes and epididymis or on sperm count, sperm morphology, or fertility. Exposed pregnant female mice showed no reduced fertility in terms of pregnancy rates and litter size, pointing to a normal ovarian function. However, a reduced placental weight of offspring of intrauterine exposed female mice was observed that correlated with a decrease in embryonic weight in those animals exposed at the strongest magnetic field. This effect seemed to be parent-dependent, since it was not observed in those embryos fathered by in utero-exposed male mice., Conclusion: Repetitive in utero exposure to strong static magnetic fields does not impair fertility but may have a parental-dependent effect on fetal programming with regard to placental development and fetal growth., (Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Purpose: To evaluate possible risks of strong static magnetic fields for embryo implantation, gestation, organogenesis, and embryonic development., Materials and Methods: Pregnant mice were exposed for 75 minutes daily during the entire course of pregnancy at the bore entrance, representing the position of medical staff, and at the isocenter, representing the position of patients, of a 1.5 T and a 7 T human MRI scanner., Results: No effect of static magnetic field strength was observed with regard to pregnancy rate, duration of pregnancy, litter size, still births, malformations, sex distribution, or postpartum death of offspring. During the first 8 weeks postnatal, mice exposed in utero to a magnetic field strength of 1.5 T or stronger showed a slight delay in weight gain and in time to eye opening compared to controls., Conclusion: Daily exposure to strong magnetic fields during pregnancy had no deleterious effect on offspring; however, a developmental retardation could be observed postnatally with regard to weight gain and eye opening., (Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

In the past three decades, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been increasingly used in obstetrics to aid diagnostics of maternal and fetal conditions and has generally been considered a safe imaging method. However, the development of higher-performance systems employing, for example, stronger fields to improve the technique's diagnostic potential, necessitates on-going safety evaluation. Rodent studies provide an excellent opportunity to investigate not only acute but also long-term effects of magnetic field exposure in a systematic manner, and a behavioral analysis might help to uncover subtler effects which might result from magnetic field exposure of the vulnerable developing brain. We conducted a comprehensive investigation of emotional and cognitive behavior in adult mice which had been repeatedly exposed to a 7 Tesla static magnetic field in utero. Using well-validated tests, we did not observe any adverse behavioral alterations regarding emotional behavior as well as spatial and emotional learning., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)