DocumentCode :
3121158
Title :
The effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields on the electrophysiology of rat brain slices in vitro
Author :
Tattersall, John E H ; Wood, Sëbastien J. ; Scott, Iain R.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Biomed. Sci., CBD Porton Down, Salisbury, UK
fYear :
1999
fDate :
1999
Firstpage :
42491
Lastpage :
42494
Abstract :
Current safety guidelines for human exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields are based on the well-understood heating effects produced by the fields. However, the possibility that RF fields may produce subtle, so-called “non-thermal” effects in biological tissues is becoming an increasingly important issue, particularly with regard to pulsed waveforms which are commonly used in applications such as telecommunications and radar. Currently, the possible health risks associated with exposure to electromagnetic radiation from cellular telephones are of particular public concern. It has been suggested that the nervous system may be particularly sensitive to this type of electromagnetic radiation, and behavioural effects have been reported in rats exposed to pulsed 2450 MHz microwaves. We have therefore investigated the effects of exposure to RF fields on the electrophysiology of brain tissue maintained in vitro. This study used slices of hippocampal tissue from rats, a well characterised preparation which is widely used in studies of neurophysiology and neurotoxicology. Unlike dissociated cell cultures, the slice preparation retains much of the structure and connectivity of the brain tissue and is thus able to display many of the functions of the intact hippocampus, enabling mechanisms of interactions to be investigated in detail. Furthermore, since the hippocampus is widely accepted to have a substantial involvement in the performance of behavioural tasks such as the radial arm maze used by Lai et al. (1994), this approach offers the possibility of extrapolating the in vitro results to the intact animal
Keywords :
electromagnetic fields; 2450 MHz; RF EM fields; UHF; behavioural effects; biological tissues; brain tissue; cellular telephones; electromagnetic radiation exposure; electrophysiology; health risks; heating effects; hippocampal tissue; human exposure; in vitro experiment; nervous system; nonthermal effects; public concern; pulsed microwaves; radial arm maze; radiofrequency electromagnetic fields; rat brain slices; safety guidelines;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
iet
Conference_Titel :
Electromagnetic Assessment and Antenna Design Relating To Health Implications of Mobile Phones (Ref. No. 1999/043), IEE Seminar on
Conference_Location :
London
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1049/ic:19990220
Filename :
789914
Link To Document :
بازگشت