Animal study on electromagnetic field biological potency

Trosic I, Matausicpisl M, Radalj Z, Prlic I

Arh Hig Rada Toksikol 50(1):5-11, 1999

This recent basic research study used an animal model protocol to assess specific biomarkers of the effect of non-ionising, non-thermal radiation (2450 MHz microwave radiation at 5-15 mW/cm²) on bone marrow, peripheral blood, and bronchoalveolar free cell populations.

Of 40 male Wistar rats taken in the study, 20 animals of the experimental group were irradiated for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, and subsequently killed on days 1, 8, 16, and 30 of the experiment. The remaining 20 rats served as control.

All animals were previously intratracheally instilled with biologically inert microspheres to see the influence of irradiation on lung retention kinetics. The cell response to chosen electromagnetic irradiation was followed quantitatively and qualitatively using the standard laboratory methods.

The results of peripheral blood cell response suggested a decreasing tendency in total leukocyte count and in relative lymphocyte count in the treated group. A slight increase was also observed in granulocyte count and in the absolute count of peripheral blood erythrocytes over control animals.