Exposure to 900 MHz electromagnetic fields activates the mkp-1/ERK pathway and causes blood-brain barrier damage and cognitive impairment in rats
Tang J, Zhang Y, Yang L, Chen Q, Tan L, Zuo S, Feng H, Chen Z, Zhu G · 2015
View Original AbstractCell phone frequency radiation damaged rats' brain barriers and memory at exposure levels similar to typical phone use.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed rats to cell phone radiation (900 MHz) for 28 days and found it damaged the blood-brain barrier and impaired memory. The radiation caused brain cells to swell and allowed harmful substances to leak into brain tissue, providing direct evidence of cognitive damage.
Why This Matters
This study breaks important new ground by demonstrating not just that EMF exposure damages the blood-brain barrier, but exactly how it happens at the cellular level. The mkp-1/ERK pathway the researchers identified gives us a biological mechanism explaining why cell phone radiation might affect brain function. What makes this particularly significant is the exposure level: the local head SAR of 2 W/kg falls within the range of typical cell phone use, while the whole-body SAR of 0.016 W/kg is well below current safety limits yet still produced measurable effects. The 28-day timeframe suggests these aren't just acute effects but cumulative damage from regular exposure. The reality is that your brain's protective barrier isn't designed to handle the electromagnetic environment we've created in just the past few decades.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0.016 and 2 W/kg
- Power Density
- 1 µW/m²
- Source/Device
- 900 MHz
- Exposure Duration
- 14 or 28 days (3h per day)
Exposure Context
This study used 1 µW/m² for radio frequency:
- 100Mx above the Building Biology guideline of 0.1 μW/m²
- 1.7Mx above the BioInitiative Report recommendation of 0.0006 μW/cm²
Building Biology guidelines are practitioner-based limits from real-world assessments. BioInitiative Report recommendations are based on peer-reviewed science. Check Your Exposure to compare your own measurements.
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
With the rapid increase in the number of mobile phone users, the potential adverse effects of the electromagnetic field radiation emitted by a mobile phone has become a serious concern. This study demonstrated, for the first time, the blood-brain barrier and cognitive changes in rats exposed to 900 MHz electromagnetic field (EMF) and aims to elucidate the potential molecular pathway underlying these changes.
A total of 108 male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to a 900 MHz, 1 mW/cm(2) EMF or sham (unexposed...
We found that the frequency of crossing platforms and the percentage of time spent in the target qua...
Taken together, these results demonstrated that exposure to 900 MHz EMF radiation for 28 days can significantly impair spatial memory and damage BBB permeability in rat by activating the mkp-1/ERK pathway.
Show BibTeX
@article{j_2015_exposure_to_900_mhz_1350,
author = {Tang J and Zhang Y and Yang L and Chen Q and Tan L and Zuo S and Feng H and Chen Z and Zhu G},
title = {Exposure to 900 MHz electromagnetic fields activates the mkp-1/ERK pathway and causes blood-brain barrier damage and cognitive impairment in rats},
year = {2015},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25598203/},
}