Effects of chronic exposure to 950 MHz ultra-high-frequency electromagnetic radiation on reactive oxygen species metabolism in the right and left cerebral cortex of young rats of different ages

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the effect of 950 MHz ultra-high-frequency electromagnetic radiation (UHF-EMR) on biomarkers of oxidative damage to DNA, proteins and lipids in the left cerebral cortex (LCC) and right cerebral cortex (RCC) of neonate and 6-day-old rats.

Materials and methods: Twelve rats were equally divided into two groups as controls (CR) and exposed (ER), for each age (0 and 6 days). The LCC and RCC were examined in ER and CR after exposure. Radiation exposure lasted 30 min per day for up to 27 days (throughout pregnancy and 6 days postnatal). The specific absorption rate ranged from 1.32–1.14 W/kg. The damage to lipids, proteins and DNA was verified by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, carbonylated proteins (CP) and comets, respectively. The concentration of glucose in the peripheral blood of the rats was measured by the Accu-Chek Active Kit due to increased CP in RCC.

Results: In neonates, no modification of the biomarkers tested was detected. On the other hand, there was an increase in the levels of CP in the RCC of the 6-day-old ER. Interestingly, the concentration of blood glucose was decreased in this group.

Conclusions: Our results indicate that there is no genotoxicity and oxidative stress in neonates and 6 days rats. However, the RCC had the highest concentration of CP that do not seem to be a consequence of oxidative stress. This study is the first to demonstrate the use of UHF-EMR causes different damage responses to proteins in the LCC and RCC.

Keywords:

• Cerebral cortex
• oxidative damage
• AGE
• UHF-EMR

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Brazilian financial agencies CNPq (grant number 308065/2010-7), FAPERGS (grant number 10/0044-3) and FINEP (grant number 04.11.0174.00). We would also like to thank Amâncio Romanelli Ferreira for providing the aluminum Faraday cage, Fernando Sperb Melecchi for lending us the signal generator and the vertical polarization antenna and Marcelo Hermes Lima (UnB) for donating the reagents for the TBARS and protein carbonylation assays. Finally, we would like to thank the Brazilian Army for partially releasing Major Orlando Vieira Furtado-Filho from his duties during the course of this study and Brazilian Army Captain Ana Rita de Ávila Belbute Peres for reviewing this paper. They also thank the Brazilian Army Captain Danielle Baretta for help in drawing the graphs.

Declaration of interest

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