Abstract
The increasing use of mobile phones by teenagers has raised concern about the cognitive effects of radiofrequency (RF) fields. In this study, we investigated the effects of 4-week exposure to a 1.8 GHz RF field on the emotional behavior and spatial memory of adolescent male mice. Anxiety-like behavior was evaluated by open field test (OFT) and elevated plus maze (EPM) test, while depression-like behavior was evaluated by sucrose preference test (SPT), tail suspension test (TST) and forced swim test (FST). The spatial learning and memory ability were evaluated by Morris water maze (MWM) experiments. The levels of amino acid neurotransmitters were determined by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The histology of the brain was examined by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. It was found that the depression-like behavior, spatial memory ability and histology of the brain did not change obviously after RF exposure. However, the anxiety-like behavior increased in mice, while, the levels of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and aspartic acid (Asp) in cortex and hippocampus significantly decreased after RF exposure. These data suggested that RF exposure under these conditions do not affect the depression-like behavior, spatial memory and brain histology in adolescent male mice, but it may however increase the level of anxiety, and GABA and Asp were probably involved in this effect.
Highlights
With the widespread use of mobile phones in modern life, adolescents are exposed to radiofrequency (RF) fields from mobile phones and base stations much more frequently than ever.According to one report, 90% of adolescents have a mobile phone and about 40% of them are considered as heavy mobile phone users [1]
Behaviors was conducted on data which was recorded in blocksThe across time, and student t-test was used on thebyother data.elevated plus maze (EPM)
Were performed evaluate depression-like behaviors after entriesInIn into the arms between the sham group and to group, the which indicated that the locomotor this study, sucrose preference test (SPT), TST and forced swim test (FST) were performed to evaluate the depression-like behaviors after exposing the mice to field for weeks
Summary
With the widespread use of mobile phones in modern life, adolescents are exposed to radiofrequency (RF) fields from mobile phones and base stations much more frequently than ever. 90% of adolescents have a mobile phone and about 40% of them are considered as heavy mobile phone users [1] This has raised public concerns about the potential health hazard of RF fields on adolescents. Bouji reported that after exposing the heads of the animals to 900 MHz RF field for 1 month (SAR 6 W/kg, 45 min/day), the spatial memory, emotional memory and locomotor activity did not change, but the anxiety-related behavior decreased in male senescent rats [11]. 840 MHz RF field (power density: 60 μW/m2 , 3 h/day for 13 days) had no effect on spatial memory and brain morphology, it decreased the locomotor activity in rats [14]. We explored the effects of 4-week exposure to 1.8 GHz RF field on the emotional behavior and spatial memory in adolescent male mice
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