Therapeutic approaches of melatonin in microwave radiations-induced oxidative stress-mediated toxicity on male fertility pattern of Wistar rats
Meena R, Kumari K, Kumar J, Rajamani P, Verma HN, Kesari KK. · 2014
View Original AbstractWi-Fi-level microwave radiation caused DNA damage in rat reproductive tissue after 45 days, suggesting everyday wireless exposures may harm fertility.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed male rats to Wi-Fi frequency radiation (2.45 GHz) for 2 hours daily over 45 days, finding it damaged sperm DNA and caused oxidative stress in testicular tissue. The antioxidant melatonin prevented this damage, suggesting everyday microwave radiation may harm male fertility but antioxidants could provide protection.
Why This Matters
This study adds to growing evidence that radiofrequency radiation at power levels we encounter daily can cause biological harm. The exposure level used (0.21 mW/cm²) is well within the range of what you might experience from Wi-Fi routers, cell phones, or other wireless devices in your home or office. What makes this research particularly significant is that it demonstrates clear DNA damage in reproductive tissue after just 45 days of exposure. The fact that melatonin provided protection suggests the damage occurs through oxidative stress pathways, which aligns with hundreds of other studies showing similar mechanisms. While the protective effect of melatonin is encouraging, the real takeaway is that we shouldn't need antioxidant supplements to protect ourselves from everyday technology. The science demonstrates that current exposure guidelines, which only consider heating effects, fail to account for the biological damage occurring at much lower power levels.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0.14 W/kg
- Power Density
- 0.21 µW/m²
- Source/Device
- 2.45 GHz
- Exposure Duration
- 2 h a day for 45 days
Exposure Context
This study used 0.21 µW/m² for radio frequency:
- 21Mx above the Building Biology guideline of 0.1 μW/m²
- 350Kx 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
Present study aimed to investigate the protective effects of melatonin (is well known antioxidant that protects DNA, lipids and proteins from free radical damage) against oxidative stress-mediated testicular impairment due to long-term exposure of MWs
For this, 70-day-old male Wistar rats were divided into four groups (n = 6/group): Sham exposed, Mel...
Result shows that melatonin prevent oxidative damage biochemically by significant increase (p < 0.00...
These results concluded that the melatonin has strong antioxidative potential against MW induced oxidative stress mediated DNA damage in testicular cells
Show BibTeX
@article{r_2014_therapeutic_approaches_of_melatonin_552,
author = {Meena R and Kumari K and Kumar J and Rajamani P and Verma HN and Kesari KK.},
title = {Therapeutic approaches of melatonin in microwave radiations-induced oxidative stress-mediated toxicity on male fertility pattern of Wistar rats},
year = {2014},
doi = {10.3109/15368378.2013.781035},
url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/15368378.2013.781035},
}