The toxic effect of mobile phone radiation on rabbit organs

Abstract

Whether electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted from mobile phones is hazardous to human health is largely unknown. We investigated the effects of mobile phone radiation on critical organs in a rabbit model by exposing the animals to mobile phone radiation with sub-thermal specific absorption rate (SAR) of 1.0 and 0.7 W/kg for the head and the body, respectively, for 16 weeks (6 h/day, 6 days/week). There is no apparent change at the organ level. However, H&E staining showed that radiation-exposure significantly increased inflammatory cell infiltration in the liver and the lungs with a lesser degree of myocardial cell cytoplasmic vacuolation. In addition, results from γ-H2AX staining suggest that radiation can also cause DNA damage in the brain. Of note, no apparent activation of Caspase-3 in the organs examined. Our data altogether suggest that mobile phone radiation may be more hazardous to both the liver and the lungs, and less toxic to the brain and heart.

KEYWORDS:

• Rabbits
• mobile phone radiation
• DNA damage

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by Hunan Province Bairen Program to S.Z.

Data availability statement

The data that support findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The data are not publicly available at this time as the data also forms part of an ongoing study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Hunan Province Bairen Program.