Effect of extremely high frequency electromagnetic radiation of low intensity on parameters of humoral immunity in healthy mice.

Lushnikov KV, Gapeev AB, Sadovnikov VB, Cheremis NK

Biofizika 46(4):753-760, 2001

[Article in Russian]

The modification of indices of the humoral immune response to thymus-dependent antigen (sheep erythrocytes) after a whole-body exposure of healthy mice to low-intensity extremely-high-frequency electromagnetic radiation was studied.

Male NMRI mice were exposed in the far-field zone of horn antenna at a frequency of 42.0 GHz and energy flux density of 0.15 mW/cm² under different regimes: once for 20 min, for 20 min daily during 5 and 20 successive days before immunization, and for 20 min daily during 5 successive days after immunization throughout the development of the humoral immune response.

The intensity of the humoral immune response was estimated on day 5 after immunization by the number of antibody-forming cells of the spleen and antibody titers. Changes in cellularity of the spleen, thymus and red bone marrow were also assessed.

The indices of humoral immunity and cellularity of lymphoid organs changed insignificantly after acute exposure and series of 5 exposures before and after immunization of the animals.

However, after repeated exposures for 20 days before immunization, a statistically significant reduction of thymic cellularity by 17.5% (p < 0.05) and a decrease in cellularity of the spleen by 14.5% (p < 0.05) were revealed.

The results show that low-intensity extremely-high-frequency electromagnetic radiation with the frequency and energy flux density used does not influence the humoral immune response intensity in healthy mice but influences immunogenesis under multiple repeated exposures.