The Effect of Sub-chronic Whole-Body Exposure to a 1,950 MHz Electromagnetic Field on the Hippocampus in the Mouse Brain

Abstract

The increasing use of mobile phones has raised public concern about the possible biological effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure on the human brain. To investigate the potential effect of RF-EMF exposure on the brain, we examined the behaviors and hippocampal morphology of C57BL/6 mice after sub-chronic exposure to RF-EMFs with a relatively high SAR level (5.0 W/kg). We applied a 2-hour daily exposure of WCDMA 1,950 MHz using a reverberation chamber that was designed for whole-body exposure for 60 days. In the behavioral tests, RF-EMF did not alter the physical activity or long-term memory of mice. Moreover, no alteration was found in the neuronal and glial cells in the hippocampus by RF-EMFs. In this study, we showed that sub-chronic whole body RF exposure did not produce memory impairment and hippocampal morphological alteration in C57BL/6 mice.Key Words: Hippocampus, Memory, Mobile Phone, Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Field, Sub-chronic Exposure. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ⓒ

Impact of Long-Term RF-EMF on Oxidative Stress and Neuroinflammation in Aging Brains of C57BL/6 Mice

“…Further, following 7 months of RF-EMF exposure in young adult mice, no changes were observed in protein oxidative damage in mouse brains, indicating that chronic RF-EMF exposure might not induce detrimental effects on young-adult mice [ 46 ]. Additionally, previous reports indicated that RF-EMF did not affect memory or anxiety-related behaviors in either young-adult [ 39 , 45 , 47 ] or aged animals [ 41 , 48 ]. To examine the effects of RF-EMFs on basic locomotor activity, we performed an open field test.…”

Behavioral changes and gene profile alterations after chronic 1,950‐MHz radiofrequency exposure: An observation in C57BL/6 mice

“…It has been documented that RF‐EMF exposure impaired spatial cognitive function in rats, demonstrating the detrimental effects of RF‐EMF on the central nervous system in laboratory animals (Nittby, Grafström, et al, 2008). Other studies have reported that chronic RF‐EMF exposure did not affect spatial memory on radial‐arm maze or passive avoidance tests (Ammari et al., 2008; Dubreuil, Jay, & Edeline, 2003; Son et al., 2015). However, some beneficial effects were also reported.…”