Long-term electromagnetic field treatment enhances brain mitochondrial function of both Alzheimer's transgenic mice and normal mice: a mechanism for electromagnetic field-induced cognitive benefit?
Dragicevic N, Bradshaw PC, Mamcarz M, Lin X, Wang L, Cao C, Arendash GW · 2011
View Original AbstractLong-term EMF treatment enhanced brain mitochondrial function by 50-150% in Alzheimer's transgenic mice and also improved it in normal aged mice.
Plain English Summary
Researchers evaluated brain mitochondrial function in aged Alzheimer's transgenic mice and normal littermates following one month of daily EMF exposure. In the transgenic mice, EMF treatment enhanced brain mitochondrial function by 50-150% across six established measures, with the greatest effects in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. EMF treatment also increased brain mitochondrial function in normal aged mice, though the enhancement was not as robust or widespread as in the transgenic mice. The researchers suggested that brain mitochondrial enhancement may be a primary mechanism through which EMF treatment provides cognitive benefit to both transgenic and normal mice.
Why This Matters
The study built on earlier work reporting that long-term EMF exposure not only prevents or reverses cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's transgenic mice but also improves memory in normal mice. In the transgenic mice, the mitochondrial improvements were accompanied by 5-10 fold increases in soluble Aβ1-40 within the same mitochondrial preparations. The researchers attributed these increases in mitochondrial amyloid-beta peptide to the apparent ability of EMF treatment to disaggregate Aβ oligomers, which are believed to be the form causative to mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease. The mitochondrial enhancement in both transgenic and normal mice was described as occurring through non-thermal effects, because brain temperatures were either stable or decreased during or after EMF treatment.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0.25 and 1.05 W/kg
- Electric Field
- 17 and 35 V/m
- Source/Device
- 918 MHz
- Exposure Duration
- two times 1 h/day for 1 month
Exposure Context
This study used 17 and 35 V/m for electric fields:
- 56.7x 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.
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
We have recently reported that long-term exposure to high frequency electromagnetic field (EMF) treatment not only prevents or reverses cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's transgenic (Tg) mice, but also improves memory in normal mice.
To elucidate the possible mechanism(s) for these EMF-induced cognitive benefits, brain mitochondrial...
In Tg mice, EMF treatment enhanced brain mitochondrial function by 50-150% across six established me...
These results collectively suggest that brain mitochondrial enhancement may be a primary mechanism through which EMF treatment provides cognitive benefit to both Tg and NT mice. Especially in the context that mitochondrial dysfunction is an early and prominent characteristic of Alzheimer's pathogenesis, EMF treatment could have profound value in the disease's prevention and treatment through intervention at the mitochondrial level
Show BibTeX
@article{n_2011_longterm_electromagnetic_field_treatment_95,
author = {Dragicevic N and Bradshaw PC and Mamcarz M and Lin X and Wang L and Cao C and Arendash GW},
title = {Long-term electromagnetic field treatment enhances brain mitochondrial function of both Alzheimer's transgenic mice and normal mice: a mechanism for electromagnetic field-induced cognitive benefit?},
year = {2011},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306452211003927},
}