Abstract
The possibility of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) of mobile phones to cause any adverse health effects on the brain is a subject of numerous studies and publications. Our previous studies have shown that no changes in microcirculatory parameters such as blood-brain barrier and leukocyte behaviors in pial microcirculation were found in the rat brain locally exposed to 1439 MHz EMF even at 2.0 W/kg of brain averaged specific absorption rate (BASAR). On the contrary, several recent studies reported that glial cells activated, indicating inflammation level, after the exposure to RF-EMF under non-thermal exposure conditions. However, the intensity level of RF-EMF exposure, which can occur the activation of glial cells, is still arguable. Therefore, it was necessary to define the intensity of local brain exposure to RF-EMF which affects the activation of glial cells. The aim of the present study was to investigate a threshold of the local exposure intensity of RF-EMF for the glial cells activation. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (8-9 weeks old) were used in this experiment. The rats were anesthetized with isoflurane (inhalation). The head of each animal was fixed in the stereotaxic apparatus and locally exposed to 10 GHz RF-EMF for 18 min using a monopole antenna. The field intensity was adjusted to make 0 to 2207 W/kg of averaged SAR in target tissue area. The two types of glial cells, microglia and astrocyte were observed 24 hours after the exposure using immunohistochemistry. As results, obvious morphological difference between sham-exposed and exposed animals were found in microglial cells. The RF-EMF exposure changed their morphology of ramified phase into those of ameboid phase under the high intensity exposure conditions. In contrast, there was no difference in astrocyte between two exposed groups even the same intensity level. We are now investigating the threshold intensity of RF-EMF for the microglial activity and expect to show it in the meeting.
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