Electromagnetic pulse activated brain microglia via the p38 MAPK pathway
Yang LL, Zhou Y, Tian WD, Li HJ, Kang-Chu-Li, Miao X, An GZ, Wang XW, Guo GZ, Ding GR · 2016
View Original AbstractThis study proves electromagnetic pulses activate brain immune cells through specific pathways, demonstrating EMF's biological impact on neuroinflammation.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed rats to electromagnetic pulses (EMP) at extremely high levels and found that these exposures activated microglia, the brain's immune cells, causing inflammation. The study identified that this brain immune response happened through a specific cellular pathway called p38 MAPK, and the effects were measurable within hours of exposure. This research helps explain one biological mechanism by which electromagnetic fields might affect brain function.
Why This Matters
This study provides important mechanistic insight into how electromagnetic fields can trigger neuroinflammation in the brain. The researchers demonstrated that EMP exposure activates microglia through the p38 MAPK pathway, leading to increased production of inflammatory molecules like TNF-α and nitric oxide. While the exposure levels used (200 kV/m) are far higher than typical environmental EMF exposures, this research is significant because it identifies a specific biological pathway through which electromagnetic fields can affect brain immune function. The science demonstrates that EMF can trigger measurable inflammatory responses in brain tissue, adding to the growing body of evidence showing that these fields are biologically active. What this means for you is that electromagnetic fields aren't just passing harmlessly through your body - they're interacting with your cells in measurable ways, particularly affecting the brain's immune response systems.
Exposure Details
- Electric Field
- 200000 V/m
- Exposure Duration
- 12 and 24 h
Exposure Context
This study used 200000 V/m for electric fields:
- 666.7Kx above the Building Biology guideline of 0.3 V/m
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.
Study Details
To investigate microglia activation could occur in the brain after EMP exposure via the p38 MAPK pathway
To test this hypothesis, the morphology and secretory function of microglia cells, including the exp...
It was found that the expression of OX-42increased significantly at 1, 6 and 12 h (p < 0.05) and rec...
Taken together, these results suggested that EMP exposure (200 kV/m, 200 pulses) could activate microglia in rat brain and affect its secretory function both in vivo and in vitro, and the p38 pathway is involved in this process.
Show BibTeX
@article{ll_2016_electromagnetic_pulse_activated_brain_483,
author = {Yang LL and Zhou Y and Tian WD and Li HJ and Kang-Chu-Li and Miao X and An GZ and Wang XW and Guo GZ and Ding GR},
title = {Electromagnetic pulse activated brain microglia via the p38 MAPK pathway},
year = {2016},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0161813X15300413},
}