3G & 2G Phone MW Hazards Experiments
Bodies, brains and cells affected in form and function by mobile phone radiation

Mobile phones generate microwave radiation that, as is more evident with each day that passes and more investigation is done, causes numerous changes in the exposed subjects: from electrophysiological changes to biochemical changes, from histopathological changes to developmental changes. ...

For electromagnetic radiation although some scientist believe that no other mechanism apart of heating is plausible to have effect on biology, the evidences for the contrary are growing.

Telecommunications, specifically as is treated in this section 2G (GSM modulation) and 3G (UMTS) mobile phone systems, are widely extended and used in the world at the time of this writing. Most 2G phones use the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard, which pulses 890–960 MHz and 1710–1880 MHz (GSM900 and GSM1800, respectively) signals with 217 Hz, whereas most 3G phones use the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System’s (UMTS), W-CDMA2 air interface standard, which operates at a higher frequency range of 1900–2170 MHz and work without periodic pulsed modulation.

In the following it will reviewed various of the subsections presented in the chats below which are dedicated to some kind of the detected ambits of damage each one, mentioning various of the papers with their major results. It must be taken into account that all intensities used (although not mentioned in this introductory text for not to be excessively extended and technical) are normal exposures situations or, in much of the cases, well below the official guidelines proposed limits (SAR 1.6 – 2.0 W/kg). More papers than those cited in this text will be available always (with more updates) in the charts below.

Let's start with the reviewing of studies that test influence of mobile phones in various brain related issues.

Brain – Changes in EEG

Brain waves are one of the aspects of brain functioning that are altered by mobile phone radiation.

It can be interesting to note that it's now know [1] that when a dialing mobile phone is placed on the ear, its radiation, although unconsciously, is electrically detected by the brain.

In [2] during 3 min In Vitro Exposure of Neural Networks to a GSM-1800 signal it has been discovered a 30% reversible decrease in firing rate and bursting rate of neurons. In [3] it has found evidence that 5 min exposure with an intensity at 10% of the ICNIRP guideline exposure limits provokes statistically significant differences in both theta and alpha waves.

Also 5 min exposure but to some more higher intensity (although well below the recommended limits) provokes alpha hemisphere dominance change and the changes depend on the side of exposure [4]:

" .. this happened due to the RF exposure by the participants in during session because alpha synchrony would decrease during the trials .. This might be the indicative of inhibitive activity in one hemisphere increasing unilaterally in response to the task and desynchronizing the hemispheres temporarily .. Also there are significant different of Alpha PAR in 5 minutes exposure to RF and continue in 5 minutes after the exposure."

In a study with a double-blind, counterbalanced, crossover design [5] is detected a power decrease of alpha band during and after thr exposure to a GSM mobile phone during 26 min in an eyes-closed condition.

In the case of a 3G mobile phone 15 min exposition on the contrary [6] increased activity of the alpha, beta, and gamma frequency bands was found in nearly every brain region.

The frequency at which the radiofrequency signal is modulated is important factor that determines what effects are notorious, in [7] exposure to RFR modulated at 8 Hz resulted in significant decrease in Theta band power and exposure to RFR modulated at 16 Hz resulted in a significant decrease in the beta-1 band power during sleep.

In a Long term study [8] with exposure to from 30 to 120 days of 1 hour daily telephony, quantitative analysis of EEG revealed a clear shift from high frequency (beta) to lower frequency (delta).

A series of studies by C.K. Smitha and N.K. Narayanan that use fractal dimension [9], wavelet analysis [10] and other techniques to measure the internal complexity of the EEG signal (that in the viewpoint of this website is equal to their information management capacity) shows changes in EEG while using mobile phone that indicate the reduction of the signal complexity.

Another study by other authors [11] also found that the approximate entropy (ApEn) function which is the measure of complexity in information process was significantly lower in group of subjects who were exposed to mobile phone EMF.

Brain – Changes in Hippocampus

Some of the electrophysiological changes have been found in the hippocampus.

For example, a long-term experiment of 6 hour daily exposure [12] shown irregular firing patterns of hippocampal neurons from the exposed rats, and they exhibited decreased spiking activity after 6-9 weeks. And another posterior experiment [13] by the same authors confirms previous findings that long-term exposure (in this case 50 days, 6 hours daily) alters spiking rates in hippocampus; it was found also that the hippocampal neurons showed irregular firing patterns and more spikes with shorter interspike interval during the whole experiment period.

Apart of this kind of changes, changes in morphology of hippocampal neurons have been also found.

In [14] histopathological examination revealed increased numbers of pyknotic neurons with black or dark blue cytoplasm and stereological and analyses revealed fewer pyramidal neurons.

In [15] it has found that after exposure to various daily calls during 28 days the CA3 region of hippocampus:

" ... revealed few congestion and signs of hemorrhage with enlarged perivascular spaces; apparent shrinkage neurons and deformation of their nuclei .. Presence of shrunken cells with condensed and increased electron density of both cytoplasm and nucleoplasm .. The mitochondria were swollen, vacuolized and had reduced number of distorted cristae .. The synapses had fewer synaptic vesicles in their presynaptic terminals, synaptic clefts widened and postsynaptic densities were reduced in thickness."

In CA1 region of hippocampus the morphological changes included mitochondrial degenerations, fewer synapses, and shorter postsynaptic densities in the radiated rats [16].

Brain – Changes in Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability

Another target that has been found to be altered by exposure to those radiations is the blood-brain barrier permeability, that is a highly selective permeability barrier that separates the circulating blood from the brain extracellular fluid in the central nervous system.

In [18] damaged blood-brain barrier permeability, which resulted in albumin and HO-1 extravasation, was observed in the hippocampus and the cortex.

In [19] it was found that most increased ratio of albumin extravasations is most effective in a specific range of power (SAR 0.1-0.5 mW.kg) and less effective in much more intense radiations (in the range of 50-500 mW.kg), that demonstrate that this effect is not a thermal nor a linear effect.

At very much lower intensities of 0.012 W/kg [20] effects of GSM mobile phone radiation upon the blood–brain barrier permeability of rats, 7 days after one occasion of 2 h of exposure, are shown that possess a statistically significant increased albumin extravasation.

Anyways a curious result is reported in [21] where in female rats no albumin extravasation was found after exposure, but only in male rats.

Brain - Oxidative Stress Production

Oxidative stress, that is the increased production of oxidizing species or the significant decrease in the effectiveness of antioxidant defenses, is also found to be a consequence to the exposure to mobile phone radiation of the brain or brain components. For example, in [22] it's detected a decreased total antioxidant status in the amygdala and cerebellum of rats.

In another experiment with rat brains [23] oxidative stress is detected:

" Increased production of reactive oxygen species due to exhaustion of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants and increased lipid peroxidation indicate extensive neurodegeneration in selective areas of CA1, CA3, DG, and the cerebral cortex."

In [24] is concluded that the oxidative stress is the main factor that activates a variety of cellular signal transduction pathways in the brain, among them the hsp27/p38MAPK, which leads to mitochondrial dysfunction-mediated cytochrome c release and subsequent activation of caspases, involved in a process of radiation-induced apoptotic cell death.

Decreased superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) activities whereas, increased levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) was encountered in [25] showing a compromised antioxidant defense. In [14] an increase in malondialdehyde and glutathione levels and a decrease in catalase levels was found.

Brain – Changes in Monoamine Neurotransmitters

Apart from oxidant/antioxidant imbalance other of the biochemical changes that are very often detected in the brain are related to monoamine neurotransmitters.

In [26] significant changes in concentrations of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin in the hippocampus, hypothalamus, midbrain and medulla oblongata of adult rats is found. And in [27] is concluded that low-intensity microwave radiation alters levels of brain monoamine neurotransmitters at mRNA and protein levels and that it may cause learning and memory disturbances.

Also in another study, in this case in combination with iron overload [28], EMF exposure causes the alterations of monoamine content in several brain areas but mainly in the hippocampus.

It can be noted that experimentally applied low level light (with non-thermal intensities) through ears channels also changes monoamine levels in brain [29].

Brain – Histopathological and Ultra-Structural Changes

Changes in the microscopic anatomy (microanatomy) of neurons and in their distribution is detected by some investigations.

For example in [18] 28 days of EMF exposure induced cellular edema and neuronal cell's organelle degeneration in rats.

In [30] after a single exposure of 8 h it's shown that the cell population in cerebellar internal granular region was significantly decreased, and also that there is a reduction in the cerebellar external granular layer thickness.

In [31] 8h daily exposure during 60d causes alterations such as congestion of the cerebral blood vessels and presence of numerous spongiform vacuoles in the neuropil of the brain tissues of the rats.

In a long term exposure experiment [32] that began with prenatal exposure (later we will see how harmful is to fetus the exposure to mobile phones radiation) and with 80d postnatal 30 min daily exposure, it’s show a decreased weekly weight gain, decreased pyramidal neuron numbers and increased ischemic neuron numbers at cortex region of brain, and also an increased vascular dilatations and increased amount of ischemic hippocampal neurons.

There are some studies that have found so much different kind of effects at the same time that they can be considered themselves as a mixture of the effects that are being finding in brain, for example in [17] it can be read that after 60 days 2 hours daily exposure:

" ... significant increments in conjugated dienes, protein carbonyls, total oxidant status, and oxidative stress index along with a significant reduction of total antioxidant capacity levels were evident after exposure. Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, caspase-3 activity, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha level were enhanced. the relative brain weight of young rats was greatly affected, and histopathological examination reinforced the neuronal damage."

Brain – Behaviour Changes

The above mentioned brain effects and others can trigger behavior changes in exposed subjects, this is in fact what the papers mentioned in this section have discovered.

For example, zebrafish daily exposure for 1 hour during 14 days [25] causes that significantly decreased the time they spent near social stimulus zone and that increased total distance they traveled. Exposure also elicits anxiety as revealed by significantly increased time spent in bottom half, freezing bouts and duration, and decreased distance traveled, average velocity, and number of entries to upper half of the tank. Exposed zebrafish also spent less time in the novel arm of the Y-Maze, corroborating significant impairment in learning.

In [23] after 4 hour daily exposure of rats to mobile phone during 15 days a significant change in behavior, i.e., more anxiety and poor learning was shown on them. In [13] during the weeks 4–5 of the experiment, the average completion time and error rate of the exposure group were longer and larger, and in [33] the amount of time needed by rats to locate the hidden platform and the time spent exhibiting freezing behavior is increased.

In another experimental setup [34] exposed rat also shown some behavioral changes like a reduced percentage of entries into the open arm, or percentage of time spent on the open arm, and distance traveled on the open arm.

In an up to 60 days 1 hour daily exposure setup [35] shown that rats are gradually affected in a behavioral model of depression like forced swim test, tail suspension test and locomotor activity. They have a significantly increased immobility and a decreased locomotor activity in comparison with control group.

A long-term study design with, in this case, mouses [36] looking for changes in spatial and non-spatial memory, shows gradually accumulating statistically significant impairments of both types of memory, with more pronounced effects on the spatial memory.

Spatial memory is also shown to be affected in other experimental setups by other authors [16,37] indicating that the exposed mice has deficits in the consolidation and/or retrieval of the learned spatial information.

And another study [38] shown that short-term memory is affected in exposed mice and proposes that the primary EMF target may be the information transfer pathway connecting the entorhinal–parahippocampal regions which participate in the object recognition task memory task.

A study by Caramets el at. [39] have demonstrated that irradiating ant colony for some hours changes the ants behaviour:

" ... ants followed trails for only short distances, no longer arrived at marked areas and no longer orientated themselves to a source of alarm pheromone. Also when exposed to electromagnetic waves, ants became unable to return to their nest and recruit congeners; therefore, the number of ants collecting food increases only slightly and slowly. After 180 h of exposure, their colonies deteriorated."

Another study by the same author confirms that an acute exposure is sufficient to provoke this ant's lower quality orientation towards their attractive alarm pheromone [40].

And another study demonstrated that 1h exposure to mobile phone call of Drosophila melanogaster leads to disturbances in their locomotor activity [41]:

" ... the larvae exposed to emissions of 1 h sending-rings tended to crawl in short, random and scattered paths, whereas control larvae crawled parallel to the wall of the petri dish. exposure to the cellphone talking mode induced significant reduction in the movement speed of adult Drosophila .. The speed of flies exposed to sending mode showed a negative regression with the time of exposure .. The flies exposed to receiving-talk mode were significantly slower than the controls at all tested time intervals. the flies exposed to 1 or 2 h sending-talks exhibited irritated zigzag locomotor paths and hyperactivity."

Very similarly but only 1 minute exposure provokes significant changes in the locomotion of the 2 different species of fishes tested in another study [42].

Also unicellular organisms like parameciums are evidently affected, in multiple ways, by only 1 min exposure [43]:

" physiology was affected: they became broader, their cytopharynx appeared broader, their pulse vesicles had difficult in expelling their content outside the cell, their cilia less efficiently moved, and trichocysts became more visible. all these effects might result from some bad functioning or damage of the cellular membrane."

More effects that results in behavior changes are also found in honeybees [44]:

" honeybees in their normal case produced sounds at lower frequencies around 450 Hz, and with lower intensity 0.3 normalized amplitude. but, when they were disturbed by the presence of a mobile phone, they produced sounds with higher frequencies that reached 1.5 KHz, and with higher intensity that reached 0.7 normalized amplitude."

With the above mentioned data it is clear that electromagnetic fields from mobile phone technology can affect brain functioning and in last instance the behaviour of exposed subject.

In the next four sections we will see how fetuses are very sensitive to radiation absorbed by mothers, and their posterior development is conditioned by the effects that this exposure have provoked.

Prenatal Exposure – Histopathological and Structural Effects

As in studies focused to test brain changes, there is a battery of experiments that have discovered changes on the microscopic anatomy of the different tissues of exposed subjects.

In a study designed to examine this kind of effects after 1h daily 8 days exposure applied in the prenatal period on ovarian follicle development and oocyte differentiation of rats [37], the follicle count results revealed a statistically significant decrease in primordial and tertiary follicle number, while atretic follicle numbers have increased. And, a histopathological examination, revealed severe follicle degeneration, vasocongestion, and a low level of increased stromal fibrotic tissue and cytoplasmic vacuolization in granulosa cell.

Also 1 hour daily prenatal exposure on rats revealed that the spinal cord have vacuolization in gray matter and occasional myelin thickening, white matter infiltration among the nerve fibers, marginal irregularity between white and gray matter and infiltration of gray matter inside white matter [45].

Testis, another of the evidently electromagnetically more sensitive parts (that is, with effects that we are now capable to see with current measures; it can exists other kind of changes that are not habitually taken in consideration for now that can be very significant like for example water's capacity to order- see section [141]) are object of numerous studies (see section “Sperm, testis, sex hormones: Various changes” on tables). In this section is mentionable a study that apart from lower sperm motility and vitality it has found immature germ cells in the seminiferous tubule lumen, and an altered seminiferous tubule epithelium and seminiferous tubule structure of the testis of 60 days old prenatally exposed rat [46].

Chicks exposed prenatally, otherwise, also reveal histopathological and structural changes, for example when their metanephros tubules are observed[47].

Structural changes has been also found in the parotid gland of male albino rats following prenatal exposure where areas of hemorrhage and degeneration of the acini and dilated ducts are detected [48]. Liver isn't also free of change [49] where it has been found marked hydropic degeneration in the parenchyma, vacuolization in the mitochondria, expansion in the endoplasmic reticulum, and necrotic hepatocytes. Also, pathological changes in cell morphology in the thymic and splenic tissues has been demonstrated in [50], and in [51] is detected a significant reduction in number of secondary and Graafian follicles with an increase in atretic follicle number.

Lens of chickens also has been detected to be susceptible to mobile phone emissions in a histopathological form; after being exposed to them in the prenatal period for 72 min daily during 9-12 days, it has been found structural changes in lens epithelial cells, formation of cystic cells and spaces, distortion of lens fibers, and formation of a posterior aberrant nuclear layer [52].

A variety of effects are detected in this experiment [53] with chickens:

" ... histopathological changes under were observed in the liver, kidneys, lung, heart, and spleen. hyperaemia was found commonly in the liver, kidneys, lung, and heart. mononuclear cell infiltration was also observed widely in the liver, kidneys, and lung .. Degeneration in hepatocytes and tubular epithelium, tubular dilatation, atelectasiae, emphysoema, interalveolar interstitial thickening in the lung, haemorrhage, myocardosis in the heart, extramedullar haematopoiesis in splenic tissues were the other changes."

And this another [54] study also found changes in chickens' liver histology, like degeneration of hepatocytes, disruption of architecture, and accumulation of lipid droplets and lack of sinusoids.

In [55] 24 hours daily prenatal exposure of rats resulted in that the histological examination of renal tissue showed mild dilatation of the Bowman’s capsules (60%), tubular lumen dilatation and integration loss and desquamations and mild degenerations due to distention, especially in distal tubule epitheliums. Furthermore, glomerular vacuolization-induced deformations and dilatation were higher by 45%.

In [56] also 24 hours daily prenatal exposure of rats causes histopathological changes in liver, where it's found intense degeneration in hepatocytes with cytoplasmic eosinophilic structures, pyknotic nuclei, and fibrosis.

Rat brains’ hippocampus showed that there are morphological differences in pyramidal cells off the cornu ammonis after prenatal exposure compared with non-exposed hippocampus [57].

Also rabbit's brain tissues are histologically affected with only 15 min daily exposure in prenatal period [58] showing mildly positive hyperaemia, neuronal necrobiosis, mononuclear cells and gliosis (a nonspecific reactive change of glial cells in response to damage to the central nervous system that in most cases involves the proliferation or hypertrophy of several different types of glial cells, including astrocytes, microglia, and oligodendrocytes).

Prenatal Exposure – Embryonic Development Changes

Apart from the previously described microscopically detected changes there are also detected a more macro-scale changes, that is, embryonic development changes.

In an experiment [59] with rats exposed to 6, 12 or 24 hours daily during the prenatal period it has been found that increasing the duration of EMF exposure resulted in a significant reduction of resting cartilage levels.

Less hours exposure design (1 or 2 hours daily) experiment, also on rats, shown that number of live embryos were significantly reduced with an increasing number of dead and reabsorbed embryos in the 2 h/day 2nd-week exposure group in compared to control group. Moreover, malformation, haematoma, and oedematous fetuses in experimental groups were observed unlike control fetuses. A significant decrease in live fetuses and a significant decrease in body mass of fetuses at gestation day 20, unlike control group. Meanwhile postnatal observations showed haematoma, congestion, short tail, malformation and growth restriction and delay in some growth markers [60].

Also 1 hour daily prenatal exposure to mobile phone like radiation of rats results in changes in spinal cord where rotarod test results revealed a significant increase in EMF group rat pups motor functions, with pathological changes in the spinal cord were it's observed morphological impairment and atrophy [45]. While a 30 min, 1 day exposure setup [61] revealed that body weights and fetal body length of fetuses were decreased and also revealed the existence of skeletal system abnormalities that include short and curved tails absent of 13th rib and wavy ribs and absent of caudal vertebrae.

An experiment with chickens found that exposed prenatal subjects shown increased mortality, gross malformations and developmental anomalies, and decrease in wet body weight and length when compared with the control group [54], this study also found various histopathological changes that have been mentioned in the previous section.

An interesting study that also take in consideration the male active part (with their paternal sperm) and if they are exposed to electromagnetic field or not (as same as female subjects) to create groups to compare effects on embryos of Xenopus laevis (a frog specie) [62] found:

" In our present study (control group; 2.2% abnormal, 0.0% dead); with the normal female + RF exposed male combination, the long-term exposure of adult males to GSM-like radiation at 900 MHz (RF: 2 W) for 5 week/8 h/day resulted in normal, abnormal and dead embryo ratios of 88.3%, 3.3% and 8.3%, respectively (p < 0.001) .. RF exposed female + normal female combination led to normal, abnormal and dead embryo ratios of 76.7%, 11.7%, and 11.7%, respectively (p < 0.001) .. RF exposed female + RF exposed male combination led to normal, abnormal and dead embryo ratios of 73.3%, 11.7%, and 15%, respectively (p < 0.001)."

In [51], pregnant rats have significantly lower pregnancy rates in 2h/daily exposed group compared to the control group and there is a significant decrease in number of pups in the 2h/daily exposure group compared to control and 1h/daily groups.

It is very interesting to note experiments like [63] where it is found that the duration of exposition varies in a great manner the detected effects (and possibly one of the reasons of why some experimental setups don't find an effect):

" significantly altered number of differentiated somites. in embryos irradiated during 38 h the number of differentiated somites increased, while in embryos irradiated during 158 h this number decreased ... The lower duration of exposure led to a significant decrease in a level of DNA strand breaks in cells of 38-h embryos, while the higher duration of exposure resulted in a significant increase in DNA damage."

Another kind of variation can be seen in [64] where exposing 1 hour daily but along different day numbers (7, 10 or 14) have different results; an increase in whole body weight and whole body length in 7 and 10 days treated embryos was seen compared to the controls, however the increase was only significant in 10 days treated embryos (P=0.012) for both weight and length, on the other hand 14 days treated embryos showed a non significant decrease in whole body weight and whole body length compared to the controls.

Prenatal Exposure – Biochemical Changes

Changes are provoked also on biochemistry (the chemical processes within and relating to living organisms) of the fetuses of exposed mothers.

In [65] the experimental procedure showed that thyroxine and triiodothyronine concentrations decreased markedly and corticosterone levels increased in blood plasma of chicks exposed to EMF during embryogenesis.

In an experiment with rabbits [66] some chemical indicators are demonstrated to be changed after prenatal exposure of male rabbits; on the blood, on the concentrations of Uric acid, Gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, Alanine transaminas and Malondialdehyde, and for female rabbits on the concentrations of Urea, Gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, Aspartate aminotransferase and Malondialdehyde.

The livers of rats born to mothers exposed to electromagnetic field, 24h/day during 20 days, have also shown [56] some biochemical changes like a significant increase in the levels of malondialdehyde accompanied by a significant fall in glutathione and increased serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase.

Various biochemical changes are described in the brain of rats after prenatal exposure [67].

Prenatal Exposure – Brain and Behaviour Changes

Finally in relation to effects on fetuses, in this section it will be addresses results from experiments that search for possible changes in brain function or microstructure, or for behavioral changes of pups when developed.

In [68] prenatally 10 hours daily exposed chickens shown changes in behavior with significantly slower aggregation responses, lower belongingness, and weaker vocalization and also displayed a statistically significant smaller cerebellum size.

Also chick's cerebellums when prenatal exposure is, in this case, of 1 hour daily [69] shown that total Purkinje cell numbers, calculated using stereological analysis, were significantly lower and that some pathological changes such as pyknotic neurons with dark cytoplasm were observed under light microscopy (more histopathological changes in other organs can be found along the various sections of this text).

Purkinje cells are electrophysiologically altered after prenatal exposure which induce decreased neuronal excitability, the most prominent changes include also: after hyperpolarization amplitude, spike frequency, half width and first spike latency [70].

Similarly to Purkinje cells, the Pyramidal cells are subject to at least two kind of alterations: the number of them and their excitability.

Pyramidal cell lost in the cornu ammonis of the experimental group female rat pups is described in this [71] paper.

And some electrophysiological changes of hippocampal pyramidal cells of rats offsprings are described in [72]:

" whole cell recordings in hippocampal pyramidal cells did show a decrease in neuronal excitability .. A decrease in the number of action potentials fired in spontaneous activity and in response to current injection .. An increase in the amplitude of the afterhyperpolarization (AHP)."

Also in the same experiment [72] learning and memory performance showed that prenatal phone exposure significantly altered learning acquisition and memory retention.

Prenatally exposed rat pup’s learning behavior is altered in a form that statistical analysis revealed a significantly higher latency in terms of finding the maze arm and significantly lower avoidance latency [57]. Another experimental setup [73] show that step-through latency was significantly decreased, and percent time spent in the correct quadrant decreased.

Another study in this case with mice [74] revealed that:

" mice exposed in-utero were hyperactive and had impaired memory as determined using the object recognition, light/dark box and step-down assays .. (mEPSCs) revealed that these behavioral changes were due to altered neuronal developmental programming .. Exposed mice had dose-responsive impaired glutamatergic synaptic transmission onto layer V pyramidal neurons of the prefrontal cortex."

In [62] it was also observed that the offsprings of female adult Xenopus laevis (a frog specie) exposed to RF-EMR during oogenesis exhibited a more aggressive behavior compared to the control group.

In the following sections, the effects are tested not on fetuses but in the subjects exposed to electromagnetic radiation themselves, this of course is a more general situation that is normally of the maximum interest also.

The next first two sections correspond to two specific parameters (apoptotic index and oxidative stress) that are measured in various of the papers addressed in this text.

Apoptotic Index Changes

The apoptotic index, is defined as the percentage of morphologically identified apoptotic cells and apoptotic bodies. Apoptosis is a process of controlled cell deletion by which the numbers of cells in a variety of tissues are regulated in physiological and pathological conditions.

Numerous of the experiments measure this apoptotic index (or number of apoptotic cells) apart from measures more specific to the experiment. Almost all of those that measure this found that the index is increased after exposure.

As an example here a list of the papers mentioned in this text that also found this effect: [24,37,46,53,55,58,59,97,108,119]

Oxidative Stress Production

As is defined, Oxidative stress reflects an imbalance between the systemic manifestation of reactive oxygen species and the biological system's ability to readily detoxify the reactive intermediates or to repair the resulting damage. This could lead to a variety of secondary pathological symptoms in mid term.

Numerous of the papers cited in this text apart from their more specific measures also detect this parameter by one or another method, here is a list of them: [50,60,64,66,77,79,80,81,84,91,97,98,108,119].

And all the, already mentioned, oxidative stress symphtoms specifically detected in brain [14,22,23,24,25,58].

Also there are mentionable some studies that specifically measure oxidative stress, between them it can be highlighted this study [75] where there are used very very low intensities (various orders of magnitude below the exposure limits recommended by the official guidelines) to expose Japanese quails embryos:

" The exposure resulted in a significant persistent overproduction of superoxide and nitrogen oxide in embryo cells during all period of analyses. As a result, significantly increased levels of TBARS and 8-oxo-dG followed by significantly decreased levels of superoxide dismutase and catalase activities were developed in the exposed embryo cells. Conclusion: Exposure of developing quail embryos to extremely low intensity RF-EMR of GSM 900 MHz during at least one hundred and fifty-eight hours leads to a significant overproduction of free radicals/reactive oxygen species and oxidative damage of DNA in embryo cells. These oxidative changes may lead to pathologies up to oncogenic transformation of cells."

One of the method used to detect oxidant stress is to check antioxidant enzyme levels, is what is done in the following study [76], but apart from this some influence in circadian rhythm is also detected; apart from decreased melatonin levels it is clear that the levels of melatonin were significantly decreased when RF exposures were given at GMT 23:00 and 3:00 when the levels should have been at the highest results, moreover results also showed decreased levels of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), two important antioxidant enzymes, in exposed rats, especially at 3:00 GMT (RF 3). In addition, the circadian rhythm of GSH-Px and SOD were disrupted in RF-exposed rats, with a distinct disorder of peak phase (from GMT 2:39 to 7:35 or from GMT 5:03 to 3:12 respectively).

Another method is to detect levels of some specific free radicals, for example, in another experiment [77] in all four tissue samples (brain, liver, heart, kidney) of irradiated mouses a statistically significant increase (p < 0.0025) of hydroxyl radicals concentration was found.

Oxidant stress has been found to be directly correlated with the number of calling minutes [86,87], some probes also detect that until certain time some antioxidant defense mechanisms are activated [88] or that vitamin C is a good protector against this provoked oxidant stress [89,90].

Other Biochemical Changes

Apart from oxidant stress and its biomarkers there are been found a variety of other biochemical parameters that are affected by mobile phone exposure.

In [92] it has found higher levels of amylase, lactate dehydrogenase and malondialdehyde in saliva of high users of mobile phones when compared in that of less mobile users.

Mobile phone like radiation have shown to provoke a statistically significant increase in the skin hydroxyproline (an amino-acid) level [93].

A study that test brain, liver and kidneys tissues of rats exposed 1 hour daily during 60 days detected that sera activity of alanine transaminase, aspartate aminotransferase, urea, creatinine and corticosterone were significantly increased and that these alterations were corrected by the withdrawal of the radiation emitter [94].

Another study with rats with 2 hours daily expose during 30 days resulted in that male and female mean serum levels of estrogen showed a significant decrease, and that in male rats mean serum levels of progesterone were significantly increased [95].

Vitamin A levels, among others, is modified after the exposure of 1 hour daily during prenatal and postnatal period (with a total o 6 weeks) [77]:

" brain and liver glutathione peroxidase activities, as well as liver vitamin A and β-carotene concentrations decreased in the EMR groups, although brain iron, vitamin A, and β-carotene concentrations increased in the EMR groups. In the 6th week, selenium concentrations in the brain decreased in the EMR groups."

3 hours daily exposure in Female hamsters may cause progesterone suppressing and cortisol releasing after 10 days, and after 60 days hyperglycemia is evident also [78].

A test on human saliva after exposure shown that apart from oxidative stress indices increases salivary flow, total protein and albumin, and amylase activity were decreased [79]. Also, apart from oxidative stress a higher Interleukin-1β levels (that plays a central role in the cytokine network and is one of the inflammatory cytokines that introduces prostaglandin E1, matrix metalloproteinase-3, NO, and other substances to intervertebral discs) has found in intervertebral discs of rats [81].

Proteome Changes

Various studies have, as their objective, the intention to detect possible changes in the set of the normally expressed proteins in a given type of cell or organism, at a given time, under defined condition.

In a study where human B lymphoblastoid cells are exposed during one complete day [82] and after measure their protein levels:

" differential expression of 27 proteins was found, which were related to DNA damage repair, apoptosis, oncogenesis, cell cycle and proliferation. expression of RPA32 was significantly down-regulated while the expression of p73 was significantly up-regulated."

Brain proteome tested in a very long experimental period (244 days) but at very very low exposure intensities, well below recommended limits, found a plethora of protein level changed [83]:

" [exposure] altered significantly the expression of 143 proteins in total (as low as 0.003 fold downregulation up to 114 fold overexpression). Several neural function related proteins (i.e., Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP), Alpha-synuclein, Glia Maturation Factor beta (GMF), and apolipoprotein E (apoE)), heat shock proteins, and cytoskeletal proteins (i.e., Neurofilaments and tropomodulin) are included in this list as well as proteins of the brain metabolism (i.e., Aspartate aminotransferase, Glutamate dehydrogenase) to nearly all brain regions studied."

Is mentionable also a series of studies on lens by Shuang Ni et al. [84,85], that although they use intensities bigger than those emitted by mobile phones (about 2-3 times bigger) they found effects, after 30 to 90 minutes of one unique exposure to mobile phone, like significant decrease in the expression of the four proteins studied: SOD1, SOD2, CAT, and GPx1 (and the previous expression of the correspondent mRNA genes) [84] or significantly increased expressional levels of VCP and USP35 proteins with significantly decreased expressional level of protein SRP68 [85].

One of the most susceptible parts to electromagnetic radiation are reproductive organs (there is a specific section with this issue below), tests of rats exposed to 1 to 4 hours daily during 30 days shown changes in heat shock proteins, superoxide dismutase, peroxiredoxin-1, and other proteins related to misfolding of proteins and/or stress [96].

Hispatological and Ultre-Structural Changes

Apart from biochemical changes various studies center their attention in detect possible changes in structures forms and organization, visible through electron microscopy and diverse staining methods.

In [97] after 1h daily exposure during 38 days structural changes and capillary congestion in the myocardium of rats were detected and transmission electron microscopy showed altered structure of Z bands, decreased myofilaments and pronounced vacuolization in the same tissue.

Female rats exposed to 2h daily exposure shown numerous histopathological changes in their ovarian and uterine tissues [98]:

" ... in the ovary were included vacuolation in interstitial, granulosa, luteal cells and ooplasm. Other histopathological changes are disorientation of corona radiata, disruption and thinning of the zona pellucida. Cellular nucleus changes similar to fragmentation of the nucleus indicate the start of a degeneration process at Graafian follicles as well as micronuclei formation in oocyte nucleus and in some luteal cells. Histopathological changes in uterine tissue confined to increase height of luminal epithelium cells, sever apoptosis of glandular and luminal epithelium cells, and sever eosinophils, polymorphonucleocyte lymphocytes and macrophage's infiltration in myometrium and endometrium layers. Vascular congestion points out for the existence of inflammatory response changes in the endometrium."

In another experiment [99], also with exposed rats groups, it's showed numerous histopathological changes regarding, in this case, to the salivary gland damage including acinar epithelial cells, interstitial space, ductal system, vascular system, nucleus, amount of cytoplasm and variations in cell size. The same authors have done another experiment in similar conditions [100] to detect changes in nasal mucosa and mucociliary and they shown ciliary disorganization and ciliary loss in the epithelial cells, epithelial metaplasia, alteration of normal chromatin distribution and karyolysis in nuclei, changes in the basal cells, and lymphocytic infiltration. In both experiments the longer period exposed group have more profound changes.

Other histological changes were detected in rat's hippocampus [101,102], cerebellar cortex [103], kidney [104][105] or lung [106] tissues. Mild to severe inflammatory changes in the portal spaces of the liver of rats as well as damage in the cells of islet of Langerhans were observed in other [107] research.

Changes in Sperm, Testis and Sex Hormones

As mentioned earlier some of the, already established, more sensitive to changes (or more easily detectable) organs of living bodies are those related to reproductive system.

In line with the previous section dedicated to histopathological changes, in [108] it has been found that after 1 hour daily 30 days exposure rats testis display vacuoles in seminiferous tubules basal membrane and edema in the intertubular space, while seminiferous tubule diameters and germinal epithelium thickness were both smaller. Another experiment [109] show a wide interstitium, detachment of Sertoli cells and spermatogonia from the basal lamina, a vacuolar degeneration and desquamation of seminiferous epithelium, and peripheral tubules showed reduced thickness of seminiferous epithelium and maturation arrest in the spermatogenesis among others. A previous similar long-term experiment by the same authors describe us a variety of effects also [110]:

" animal weight was lower at first, second and fourth month. the mean testis weight was significantly reduced in all months except fourth month and the mean testis volume was significantly reduced in the first three months.the mean seminiferous tubule density per unit area was significantly lower value. the mean seminiferous tubule diameter was significantly reduced except the second month. the mean number of Sertoli cells and Leydig cells were significantly reduced. mean serum testosterone level were significantly lower. microscopic changes: 1. the interstitium appeared wide 2. Sertoli cells and spermatogonia were detached from the basal lamina. 3. vacuolar degeneration and desquamation of seminiferous epithelium. most of the peripheral tubules showed maturation arrest in the spermatogenesis. seminiferous tubules scored between 8 and 9 using Johnson testicular biopsy score count."

Meanwhile ultra-structure of adult bovine sperm have been shown to be extremely sensitive even to only an acute 5 minutes exposure to a mobile phone, with a large amount of changes detected in this setup [111].

In [112] significant decrease in sperm count, increase in the lipid peroxidation damage in sperm cells, reduction in seminiferous tubules and testicular weight and DNA damage was found.

Testosterone levels are also shown to be affected in various experiments [109,110,113,114].

In a statistical study [115] it is shown that daily duration of talking on the cell phone was significantly associated with sperm quality in men by decreasing the semen volume, sperm concentration, or sperm count.

In this experiment [116] various sperm parameters changes, apart from increases of sperm DNA fragmentation there are also detected changes in sperm motility, sperm linear velocity, sperm linearity index, and sperm acrosin activity. While in [117] lower number of spermatozoa with progressive movement and higher number of spermatozoa with non–progressive movement are detected. Sperm motility is also proved to be reduced in [118].

And also are specifically detected two effects that are recurrently provoked by externally applied microwave electromagnetic fields on other tissues: Oxidative stress and apoptotic index increases [119].

Cancer Promotion

Various statistical studies indicate that there is a relationship between use of mobile phones and certain cancers. In this line in a paper by Moon et al. [120] founds that tumors position may coincide with the more frequently ear used on callings, and that tumor volume have strong correlation with amount of mobile phone usage. Various statistical studies by Hardell et al. also underscore a correlation [121,122], and a study by Coreau et al. [123] add additional data that support previous findings concerning the possible association between heavy mobile phone use and brain tumours.

It must be said that a statistical relation with cancer is not totally elucidated because of some complications in the uptake of data, anyways in the view of the editor of this web cancer is only the last symptom, not always reached, of a more important (although without death consequences) general degenerative and stress symptoms of the uncontrolled and excessive exposure to radiofrequency sources, that is more important because are affecting all of us (although some people say "I'm well, this is all a nonsense", etc.. this is a fallacy because they aren't comparing their current situation with a control situation without exposures).

Other kind of papers may show a more direct case relationship between mobile phone and cancer, an example can be found in [124] where the four cancer patients subject of study regularly carried their smartphones directly against their breasts in their brassieres for up to 10 hours a day, for several years, and developed tumors in areas of their breasts immediately underlying the phones position. Moreover pathology of all cases shows striking similarity; all tumors are hormone-positive, low-intermediate grade, having an extensive intraductal component, and all tumors have near identical morphology.

Another study [125] with cancer patients (n = 63) has show that the use of mobile phones for ≥3 hours a day show a consistent pattern of increased risk for the mutant type of p53 gene expression in the peripheral zone of the glioblastoma, and that this increase was significantly correlated with shorter overall survival time.

An experiment [126] that compare buccal cell preparations of users of mobile phones during previous 3-5y and non-users of mobile phone detected that:

" The frequency of micronuclei (13.66x), nuclear buds (2.57x), basal (1.34x), karyorrhectic (1.26x), karyolytic (2.44x), pyknotic(1.77x) and condensed chromatin (2.08x) cells were highly significantly increased in mobile phone users whereas the binucleated cells (4.03x) and repair index (8.36x) showed significant decrease. DNA damage and nuclear anomalies scored in BMCyt assay are indicative of genetic damage that has not been repaired and this may predispose the mobile phone users to malignancy and cytotoxicity ramifications."

A recent long period (2 years) exposure study on rats [127] also confirm a relationship of mobile phone radiation with the development of cancer.

DNA Damage

Various studies have also show a DNA damage as a consequence of mobile phone usage, some studies are specifically oriented to test this possibility, others have discovered this in a parallel tests that runs while other tests more specific to the object of the study are executed. Various of this latest kind of experiments are already mentioned in their respective sections and their results on DNA damage will be summarized in the following lines.

In [24] radiation emitted from 3G mobile phone significantly induced DNA strand breaks in brain, in [52] the DNA damage in the developing eyes of the experiment group assessed by comet assay was highly significant. In [116] significant increase in sperm DNA fragmentation percent was discovered and in [112] an increase in DNA strand break in Seminiferous tubules of testis was also discovered.

As mentioned there are other study designs that are specifically constructed to detect DNA damage. In this paper [128] it's found that the levels of DNA damage were significantly increased following exposure in the listen, dialed and dialing modes, and especially in the two later cases. And in [140] talking on a mobile phone for 15 or 30 min significantly increased single-strand DNA breaks in the cells of hair roots close to the phone.

Another kind of damages are found in [129] where:

" phone EMFs can remarkably cause disturbance on ct DNA structure. DNA samples, immediately after exposure and 2 h after 45 min exposure, are relatively thermally unstable .. have more fluorescence emission attributable to expansion of the exposed DNA structure .. increment in the surface charge and size of DNA .. displacement of electrons in DNA by EMFs may lead to conformational changes of DNA and DNA disaggregation."

In [130] it has been found some recovery mechanisms at work when the increased oxidative DNA damage to brain after 10 days of exposure is decreased following 40 days of exposure, but those increased or stimulated DNA repair mechanisms, most probably, have secondary effects on cells.

Effects on plants growth

Finally, and not less importantly, mobile phone radiation have been shown that also affects plants in various studies, and maybe it's appropriate firstly to address a study that is not included in this section but in the section dedicated to the study of mobile phone mast effects [131], but the study is interesting because its follow trees health along years in numerous urban points and where health is deduced by visual comparison, because is evident. The study is [132] and there are also some complementary photos of the study elsewhere [133].

An experiment that uses DECT phones show that exposed plants have seem to be affected concerning their biomass and leaf structure and their leaves are thinner and possess fewer chloroplasts [134].

In [135] maize seedlings exposed to 4 hours daily exposure have shown significant growth and biochemical alterations, in the first case the detected alterations are the reduction in the root and coleoptile length, with more pronounced effect on coleoptile growth. And the detected biochemical changes are interferences with starch and sucrose metabolism with some enzymes with increased activity.

An interesting study demonstrate changes in soybean seedling growth in a non-linear mode [136]; the effects depend on the intensity but not directly from less to more but in the following form: at maximum intensity of the experiment resulted in diminished growth of the epicotyl, at medium potency there is no effect, an at minimum potency growth of epicotyl and hypocotyl was found to be reduced, whereas the growth of roots was stimulated.

Non linear effects are also shown in another experiment that uses two kind of phone emitters (2G and 3G) on leguminous plants and with both are reported significant increments in germination percentage, seedling length, proteins, lipid and Guaiacol content, in all exposure times but seedling length significantly decreased only when the exposure was of 30 min (and not 2,4, or 8 hours). Anyways in all cases the causes are non-natural processes like a stress condition induced by the exposure to mobile phones [137].

Some effect on germination rate are also detected in [138] and another study points out that electromagnetic waves emitted from mobile phones affect seeds in the state of dormancy more than the state of germination [139].

More papers and latest discoveries will be always available in the charts below references.

References:

Very related sections:

Applied Fields - Hazards
3G & 2G (GSM) Phone MW Hazards Experiments