Induction of adaptive response: Pre-exposure of mice to 900 MHz radiofrequency fields reduces hematopoietic damage caused by subsequent exposure to ionising radiation

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate whether an adaptive response can be induced in mice which were pre-exposed to 900 MHz radiofrequency fields.

Materials and methods: Adult male Kunming mice were exposed to 900 MHz radiofrequency fields (RF) at power intensities of 12, 120 and 1200 μW/cm² for 1 h/day for 14 days and then subjected to whole body gamma-irradiation. The results were compared with those in unexposed control animals and those exposed to gamma-irradiation alone (without pre-exposure to RF). The extent of survival and hematopoietic tissue damage (assessed in the form of nucleated colony forming cells in the bone marrow and colony forming cells in the spleen of lethally irradiated ‘recipient’ mice) as well as the expression of cell cycle-related genes were investigated.

Results: The results indicated a significant increase in survival time, reduction in the hematopoietic tissue damage in RF pre-exposed mice which were gamma-irradiated (as compared with those exposed to gamma-radiation alone). This was accompanied by significantly increased expression of cell cycle-related genes, namely, cyclin-D1, cyclin-E, cyclin-DK4 and cyclin-DK2 in hematopoietic cells.

Conclusions: Pre-exposure of mice to 900 MHz radiofrequency fields has resulted in a significant reduction in hematopoietic damage caused by subsequent exposure to ionising radiation. This phenomenon appears to be similar to that of the ‘adaptive response’ which is well documented in scientific literature.

Keywords:

• Radiofrequency fields
• gamma-radiation
• survival
• hematopoietic tissue damage
• cell cycle genes

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant (81020108028) from National Natural Science Foundation, a grant (973 project: 2011CB503700) from Ministry of Science and Technology, China, and interdisciplinary pre-research project of Soochow University. We are grateful to Drs Robert L. McIntosh and Raymond J. McKenzie, Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research (ACRBR), Swinburne University of Technology, John St, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia, for their invaluable help in SAR calculations.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.