Mobile-phone Radiation-induced Perturbation of Gene-expression Profiling, Redox Equilibrium and Sporadic-apoptosis Control in the Ovary of Drosophila melanogaster
Manta AK, Papadopoulou D, Polyzos AP, Fragopoulou AF, Skouroliakou AS, Thanos D, Stravopodis DJ, Margaritis LH. · 2017
View Original AbstractJust 30 minutes of mobile phone radiation doubled cell death rates in reproductive tissue at exposure levels considered 'safe.'
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed fruit flies to mobile phone radiation for just 30 minutes and found it triggered a cascade of harmful cellular changes in their ovaries. The exposure increased damaging molecules called reactive oxygen species by 60%, altered the activity of 168 genes, and doubled the rate of cell death within hours. This demonstrates that brief mobile phone exposure can disrupt fundamental biological processes at the cellular level.
Why This Matters
This study provides compelling evidence that mobile phone radiation can trigger immediate biological disruption even at relatively low exposure levels. The SAR of 0.15 W/kg used here is well below the 2.0 W/kg limit set by the FCC, yet it still produced measurable oxidative stress, genetic disruption, and increased cell death in reproductive tissue. What makes this research particularly significant is the systematic approach - showing how EMF exposure creates a domino effect from initial oxidative damage to widespread genetic changes to eventual cell death. While fruit flies aren't humans, they share fundamental cellular mechanisms with us, and their ovaries provide a controlled system for studying reproductive effects. The fact that such brief exposure triggered changes in 168 genes suggests EMF radiation may be far more biologically active than current safety standards assume.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0.15 W/kg
- Source/Device
- mobile phone
- Exposure Duration
- 30 min
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
To study the mobile-phone Radiation-induced Perturbation of Gene-expression Profiling, Redox Equilibrium and Sporadic-apoptosis Control in the Ovary of Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster four days-old adult female flies were exposed for 30 min to radiation emitte...
ROS cellular contents were found to increase by 1.6 fold (x), immediately after the end of exposure,...
Exposure of adult flies to mobile-phone radiation for 30 min has an immediate impact on ROS production in animal's ovary, which seems to cause a global, systemic and non-targeted transcriptional reprogramming of gene expression, 2 h post-exposure, being finally followed by induction of apoptosis 4 h after the end of exposure. Conclusively, this unique type of pulsed radiation, mainly being derived from daily used mobile phones, seems capable of mobilizing critical cytopathic mechanisms, and altering fundamental genetic programs and networks in D. melanogaster.
Show BibTeX
@article{ak_2017_mobilephone_radiationinduced_perturbation_of_1179,
author = {Manta AK and Papadopoulou D and Polyzos AP and Fragopoulou AF and Skouroliakou AS and Thanos D and Stravopodis DJ and Margaritis LH.},
title = {Mobile-phone Radiation-induced Perturbation of Gene-expression Profiling, Redox Equilibrium and Sporadic-apoptosis Control in the Ovary of Drosophila melanogaster},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.1080/19336934.2016.1270487},
url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19336934.2016.1270487},
}