Abstract
Few studies have investigated physiologic and cognitive effects of “long-term" electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure in humans or animals. Our recent studies have provided initial insight into the long-term impact of adulthood EMF exposure (GSM, pulsed/modulated, 918 MHz, 0.25–1.05 W/kg) by showing 6+ months of daily EMF treatment protects against or reverses cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's transgenic (Tg) mice, while even having cognitive benefit to normal mice. Mechanistically, EMF-induced cognitive benefits involve suppression of brain β-amyloid (Aβ) aggregation/deposition in Tg mice and brain mitochondrial enhancement in both Tg and normal mice. The present study extends this work by showing that daily EMF treatment given to very old (21–27 month) Tg mice over a 2-month period reverses their very advanced brain Aβ aggregation/deposition. These very old Tg mice and their normal littermates together showed an increase in general memory function in the Y-maze task, although not in more complex tasks. Measurement of both body and brain temperature at intervals during the 2-month EMF treatment, as well as in a separate group of Tg mice during a 12-day treatment period, revealed no appreciable increases in brain temperature (and no/slight increases in body temperature) during EMF “ON" periods. Thus, the neuropathologic/cognitive benefits of EMF treatment occur without brain hyperthermia. Finally, regional cerebral blood flow in cerebral cortex was determined to be reduced in both Tg and normal mice after 2 months of EMF treatment, most probably through cerebrovascular constriction induced by freed/disaggregated Aβ (Tg mice) and slight body hyperthermia during “ON" periods. These results demonstrate that long-term EMF treatment can provide general cognitive benefit to very old Alzheimer's Tg mice and normal mice, as well as reversal of advanced Aβ neuropathology in Tg mice without brain heating. Results further underscore the potential for EMF treatment against AD.
Highlights
Despite the best efforts of pharmaceutical industry and academia, no new drugs against Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) have been developed since 2003 [1]
We report a profound ability of long-term electromagnetic field (EMF) treatment to reverse brain Ab deposition, induce changes in regional cerebral blood flow, and provide selected cognitive benefits - all without induction of brain hyperthermia
For cognitive-based tasks/measures, EMF effects were task specific with benefits observed in the Y-maze task, but no effects in either the circular platform or radial arm water maze (RAWM) tasks
Summary
Despite the best efforts of pharmaceutical industry and academia, no new drugs against Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) have been developed since 2003 [1]. The recent 13-nation INTERPHONE study [8], as well as analytic findings from NIEHS [9] and numerous epidemiologic studies [10,11,12], all collectively conclude that there is no consistent evidence that longterm exposure of adults or children/adolescents to cell phone level EMFs causes brain tumors, or very likely any other health problems for that matter In concert with these studies alleviating safety issues related to high frequency EMF exposure, dozens of studies have investigated potential cognitive and physiologic (i.e., EEG, cerebral blood flow, and auditory processing) effects of cell phone level EMF exposure. Several PET studies have reported that acute, single-exposure EMF treatment can affect regional cerebral blood flow [17,18] and increase brain glucose utilization [19], suggesting that even acute high frequency EMF treatment can affect brain neuronal activity
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