Increased Hippocampal Level of Kinases after Long-term Exposure to GSM-2100 Cell Phone Radiation

Abstract

Humans in modern society utilize cell phones, with interest expected to increment constantly in coming years. Cell phone users partly absorb electromagnetic radiation (EMR) through signals from cellular phones. Therefore, understanding the biological effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation (RF-EMR) exposure is very important for human health. Owing to close proximity use of cell phones to user's head, human brain is adversely affected. One of the affected brain regions is known as hippocampus. The major intracellular signalling pathway implemented in the hippocampus includes activation-dependent molecular changes which are mediated by a rise in intracellular calcium leading to the activation of protein kinases. In the literature, little is known about the effects of long term GSM-2100 cell phone radiation exposure on hippocampal levels of kinases including Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) and protein kinase A (PKA) on rats. Hence, the present study has been focused on 3G cell phone radiation effects on hippocampal level of kinases with 50 days of exposure. Rats were divided into “sham-exposed” and “GSM-2100 exposed” groups. Sham-exposed rats were housed in the same room under the same conditions with equal time period without antenna. GSM-2100 exposure group of rats were exposed to 2100MHz RF-EMR emitted from the signal generator for 2 hours per day. Hippocampal level of kinases was determined by western blotting. The comparison of hippocampal levels of CaMKIIα and PKA between “sham-exposed” and “GSM-2100 exposed” groups revealed that hippocampal levels of these kinases were significantly higher in “GSM-2100 exposed” groups than “sham-exposed” groups. Our results provide experimental data suggesting that long term exposure to GSM-2100 cell phone radiation had increased effect on hippocampal kinases which might encourage further research investigating molecular effects of RF-EMR exposure on signaling pathways in the central nervous system.