Author(s): Khursheed Faridi and Aijaz Ahmed Khan
The interaction of mobile phone radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation (RF-EMR) with the brain is a serious concern of our society. Because of growing use of mobile phone, there is increasing concern of such interaction with many human organs in general and brain in particular. In this study, the effect of RF-EMR on sector CA3 of hippocampus was investigated. Thirty five adult albino rats were divided into one control and 4 experimental groups namely E25, E50, E75 and E100which received 25, 50, 75 and 100 missed calls per day respectively for a period of 4 weeks. At the end of experiment the animals were euthanized and perfusion fixed in karnovsky’s fixative. Light microscopy of 10 μm thick paraffin and semithin (0.5 μm thick) resin sections from CA3 region revealed few congestion and signs of hemorrhage with enlarged perivascular spaces; apparent shrinkage neurons and deformation of their nuclei. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed 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. These findings indicated that excessive mobile phone radiation leads to demonstrable light and electron-microscopic morphological alterations in sector CA3 of hippocampus which may in long term, lead to both cognitive and behavioral changes.