Ten gigahertz microwave radiation impairs spatial memory, enzymes activity, and histopathology of developing mice brain

Archana Sharma, Kavindra Kumar Kesari, Virender Kumar Saxena, Rashmi Sisodia

For decades, there has been an increasing concern about the potential hazards of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields that are present in the environment and alarming as a major pollutant or electro-pollutant for health risk and neuronal diseases. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to explore the effects of 10 GHz microwave radiation on developing mice brain. Two weeks old mice were selected and divided into two groups (i) sham-exposed and (ii) microwave-exposed groups. Animals were exposed for 2 h/day for 15 consecutive days. After the completion of exposure, within an hour, half of the animals were autopsied immediately and others were allowed to attain 6 weeks of age for the follow-up study. Thereafter results were recorded in terms of various biochemical, behavioral, and histopathological parameters. Body weight result showed significant changes immediately after treatment, whereas non-significant changes were observed in mice attaining 6 weeks of age. Several other endpoints like brain weight, lipid peroxidation, glutathione, protein, catalase, and superoxide dismutase were also found significantly (p < 0.05) altered in mice whole brain. These significant differences were found immediately after exposure and also in follow-up on attaining 6 weeks of age in microwave exposure group. Moreover, statistically significant (p < 0.001) effect was investigated in spatial memory of the animals, in learning to locate the position of platform in Morris water maze test. Although in probe trial test, sham-exposed animals spent more time in searching for platform into the target quadrant than in opposite or other quadrants. Significant alteration in histopathological parameters (qualitative and quantitative) was also observed in CA1 region of the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and ansiform lobule of cerebellum. Results from the present study concludes that the brain of 2 weeks aged mice was very sensitive to microwave exposure as observed immediately after exposure and during follow-up study at 6 weeks of age.