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Effect of Exposure to 1,800 MHz Electromagnetic Fields on Heat Shock Proteins and Glial Cells in the Brain of Developing Rats

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Abstract

The increasing use of mobile phones by children raise issues about the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on the immature Central Nervous System (CNS). In the present study, we quantified cell stress and glial responses in the brain of developing rats one day after a single exposure of 2 h to a GSM 1,800 MHz signal at a brain average Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) in the range of 1.7 to 2.5 W/kg. Young rats, exposed to EMF on postnatal days (P) 5 (n = 6), 15 (n = 5) or 35 (n = 6), were compared to pseudo-exposed littermate rats (n = 6 at all ages). We used western blotting to detect heat shock proteins (HSPs) and cytoskeleton- or neurotransmission-related proteins in the developing astroglia. The GSM signal had no significant effect on the abundance of HSP60, HSC70 or HSP90, of serine racemase, glutamate transporters including GLT1 and GLAST, or of glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP) in either total or soluble tissue extracts. Imunohistochemical detection of CD68 antigen in brain sections from pseudo-exposed and exposed animals did not reveal any differences in the morphology or distribution of microglial cells. These results provide no evidence for acute cell stress or glial reactions indicative of early neural cell damage, in developing brains exposed to 1,800 MHz signals in the range of SAR used in our study.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by INSERM, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie and grants from the Fondation Santé et Radiofréquences and from INERIS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Inserm, UMR 894, Physiopathologie des Maladies Psychiatriques, Centre de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences, Paris, France

    Aurélie Watilliaux & Thérèse M. Jay

  2. Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France

    Aurélie Watilliaux & Thérèse M. Jay

  3. Centre de Neurosciences Paris-Sud UMR CNRS 8195, Orsay, France

    Jean-Marc Edeline

  4. Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France

    Jean-Marc Edeline

  5. XLIM-UMR 6172 CNRS, Limoges, France

    Philippe Lévêque

  6. Inserm UMR-S 975, CNRS UMR 7225, UPMC, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, Paris, France

    Michel Mallat

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  1. Aurélie Watilliaux
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  2. Jean-Marc Edeline
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  3. Philippe Lévêque
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  4. Thérèse M. Jay
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  5. Michel Mallat
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Correspondence to Thérèse M. Jay.

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Watilliaux, A., Edeline, JM., Lévêque, P. et al. Effect of Exposure to 1,800 MHz Electromagnetic Fields on Heat Shock Proteins and Glial Cells in the Brain of Developing Rats. Neurotox Res 20, 109–119 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-010-9225-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-010-9225-8

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