Evaluation of testicular degeneration induced by low‐frequency electromagnetic fields

Abstract

The population exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) has been growing in recent decades. The generation, distribution and use of electric energy can generate low-frequency electromagnetic fields. The present study investigates the effects of EMF (60 Hz and 1 mT) on spermatogenesis of rats during different periods of maturation. Wistar rats were exposed to EMF from day 13 of gestation to postnatal day 21 or 90 in three daily applications of 30 min. Plasma testosterone concentration was not changed by EMF exposure; however, histopathological and histomorphometrical analyses of the testes showed testicular degeneration in a subset of animals exposed to EMF. The magnitude of the degenerative process varied between those individuals affected, indicating different individual sensitivity to EMF. The main alterations observed through transmission electron microscopy were highly electron-dense mitochondria with loss of their organization and cristae. Exposure to 60 Hz and 1 mT EMF can disturb spermatogenesis and may produce subfertility or infertility.

The thermal effect of 2.45 GHz microwave radiation on rat testes

“…Histopathological changes observed in the present study are consistent with other relevant studies, where the authors also recorded cellular vacuolisation, reduction in the number of germ cells and cellular disorganization (Ribeiro et al 2007;Usikalu et al 2010), severing of the spermatogenic cells (El-Bediwi et al 2011), degeneration and necrotization of the cells of the germinal epithelium, and a decrease in Sertoli cells (Khayyat 2011). At the level of electron microscopy, major mitochondrial damage has been also found (Tenorio et al 2012).…”

Quasi-optical Systems Based on Periodic Structures

“…Here we took into account that, owing to definitions (2.45) and (2.49), 69) where A : M 4 → R 3 is the related magnetic vector potential generated by the moving external charged particle. Equations (2.67) can be rewritten with respect to the laboratory reference system K in the form dr/dt = u, dp/dt = qE + qu × B − q∇ < A, u >, (2.70) which coincides with the result (2.61).…”

“…Here by W nκ = |a scat nκ | 2 + |b scat nκ | 2 we denote the total energy of the scattered and generated fields at the frequencies nκ, n = 1, 3. The spectral characteristics of the linearised non-linear problems (62), (CS1) -(CS4) with the induced dielectric permittivity (72) at the frequency κ of excitation and the frequency 3κ of generation were calculated by means of the algorithm (69). In the graphical illustration of the eigen-fields U κ n in the representation (64) we have set a κ n := 1 for…”

“…The eigen-frequencies κ n ∈ Ω nκ ⊂ H nκ , n = 1, 2, 3, i.e. the characteristic numbers of the dispersion equations of the problem (69), are obtained by solving the corresponding dispersion equations f nκ (κ n ) := det(I − B nκ (κ n )) = 0 by the help of Newton's method or its modifications. The non-trivial solutions U κ n of the homogeneous systems of linear algebraic equations (69) corresponding to these characteristic numbers are the eigen-fields (64) of the linearised non-linear layered structures with an induced dielectric constant (52).…”

“…This defines the basic design of the implemented numerical algorithm. The investigation of the eigen-modes of the linearised non-linear structures (69) should always precede the solution of the non-linear scattering and generation problem in the self-consistent formulation (61). Note that, in the analysis of the linear structures, the problem of excitation (scattering) and the spectral problem can be solved independently.…”