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 radiation damaged rats' blood-brain barrier and memory after 28 days at levels comparable to everyday 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, allowing harmful substances to leak into brain tissue and impairing memory. This demonstrates prolonged cell phone exposure can breach the brain's protective defenses.
Why This Matters
This research adds crucial evidence to the growing body of science showing that radiofrequency radiation can compromise the blood-brain barrier, one of our most critical biological defenses. The exposure level used (1 mW/cm2) falls within the range of typical cell phone emissions, making these findings directly relevant to everyday device use. What makes this study particularly significant is that it identifies a specific molecular pathway (mkp-1/ERK) through which RF radiation damages brain tissue. The science demonstrates that 28 days of exposure was sufficient to cause measurable cognitive impairment and allow proteins that should never enter the brain to breach this protective barrier. This isn't just cellular damage in a petri dish - this is functional brain impairment in living animals at exposure levels similar to what millions of people experience daily.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0.016, 2 W/kg
- Power Density
- 1 µW/m²
- Source/Device
- 900 MHz
- Exposure Duration
- 3 h/day for 14 or 28 days
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
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/cm2 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_192,
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://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000689931500030X},
}