Upregulation of Specific mRNA Levels in Rat Brain After Cell Phone Exposure
Yan JG, Agresti M, Zhang LL, Yan Y, Matloub HS. · 2008
View Original AbstractChronic cell phone radiation exposure triggered brain injury markers in rats at SAR levels similar to heavy human phone use.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed rats to cell phone radiation (1.9 GHz) for 6 hours daily over 18 weeks and examined changes in brain tissue at the molecular level. They found statistically significant increases in mRNA (genetic instructions for making proteins) associated with brain injury and repair processes. The study suggests that chronic cell phone exposure may cause cumulative brain damage that could eventually become clinically significant.
Why This Matters
This study provides compelling evidence that radiofrequency radiation from cell phones can trigger molecular-level changes in brain tissue that indicate injury and stress responses. The researchers found upregulation of proteins involved in calcium regulation, cell adhesion, nerve growth, and blood vessel formation - all markers of the brain attempting to repair damage. What makes this particularly relevant is that the SAR levels used (0.9-1.8 W/kg) fall within the range of typical cell phone exposures, and the 6-hour daily exposure mimics heavy phone use patterns common today. The 18-week duration allowed researchers to observe cumulative effects that shorter studies might miss. While this was an animal study, the molecular pathways examined are fundamental to mammalian brain function, making the findings highly relevant to human health concerns about long-term cell phone use.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 1.8,0.9,1.18 W/kg
- Source/Device
- 1.9 GHz
- Exposure Duration
- 2 x 3 h/day, for 18 weeks
Exposure Context
This study used 1.8,0.9,1.18 W/kg for SAR (device absorption):
- 2.3x above the Building Biology guideline of 0.4 W/kg
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
To check the hypothesis that cell phone irradiation can cause cellular damage to the rat brain leading to increased mRNA transcription of injury-associated proteins.
Adult Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to regular cell phones for 6 h per day for 126 days (18 weeks...
The results showed statistically significant mRNA up-regulation of these proteins in the brains of r...
These results indicate that relative chronic exposure to cell phone microwave radiation may result in cumulative injuries that could eventually lead to clinically significant neurological damage.
Show BibTeX
@article{jg_2008_upregulation_of_specific_mrna_206,
author = {Yan JG and Agresti M and Zhang LL and Yan Y and Matloub HS.},
title = {Upregulation of Specific mRNA Levels in Rat Brain After Cell Phone Exposure},
year = {2008},
doi = {10.1080/15368370802072208},
url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15368370802072208},
}