Increased Radioresistance to Lethal Doses of Gamma Rays in Mice and Rats after Exposure to Microwave Radiation Emitted by a GSM Mobile Phone Simulator

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of pre-irradiation with microwaves on the induction of radioadaptive response. In the 1 st phase of the study, 110 male mice were divided into 8 groups. The animals in these groups were exposed/sham-exposed to microwave, low dose rate gamma or both for 5 days. On day six, the animals were exposed to a lethal dose (LD). In the 2 nd phase, 30 male rats were divided into 2 groups of 15 animals. The 1 st group received microwave exposure. The 2 nd group (controls) received the same LD but there was no treatment before the LD. On day 5, all animals were whole-body irradiated with the LD. Statistically significant differences between the survival rate of the mice only exposed to lethal dose of gamma radiation before irradiation with a lethal dose of gamma radiation with those of the animals pre-exposed to either microwave (p=0.02), low dose rate gamma (p=0.001) or both of these physical adapting doses (p=0.003) were observed. Likewise, a statistically significant difference between survival rates of the rats in control and test groups was observed. Altogether, these experiments showed that exposure to microwave radiation may induce a significant survival adaptive response.