The increasing demand for radiofrequency (RF) radiations from various electrical appliances for domestic or industrial use has shown that RF radiation plays a very important role in human life today, especially those from mobile phones, Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) or power transmission lines. Are generated through. In turn, telecommunication services created by the principles of electromagnetic fields (EMF) make it largely possible for individuals and groups to communicate with each other.
Presently, today’s mobile phones are used not only in making or receiving calls but also in banking transactions, web browsing, etc. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there were estimated to be approximately 4.6 billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide in 2009, and this number is expected to reach 8 billion by 2015, one of the fastest growing environmental impacts.
In recent years, numerous histological and physiological studies have been conducted in evaluation of the hazardous effects resulting from exposure to EMF on human health in terms of cancer, renal system, reproduction and development, central nervous system and immune function.
It has been observed that RF radiation emitted from mobile phones has various effects on sperm motility and morphology, immune functions, mammalian brain and neurological degeneration syndromes. However, many cell phone risks have not been proven to be harmful. Exposure to 450 MHz RF radiation has been observed to significantly alter human EEG beta rhythms by Hinrichs et al. Lai et al studied microwave effects on the cholinergic system of the rat brain.
They showed that each brain region has a dose-dependent relationship to how much different microwave power densities affect it. Nitby et al stated that exposure to 900 MHz RF radiation from mobile phones led to changes in the permeability of the blood-brain barrier in mammals, reporting that air conditioners generate significant levels of RF radiation, which may impair spermatogenesis. Is related to quality. This phenomenon is now widely accepted to activate DNA, which in turn synthesizes proteins – and recent advances have shown that prolonged exposure to EMF can produce thyroxine—thyroid-stimulating hormone. -induced decreases in thyroid-stimulating (thyroid-3 or T3 levels).
Internal organs, and especially the kidney-pelvic organs, absorb mobile phone RF radiation more than other body organs, as mobile phones are generally strapped around the belt. To the best of our knowledge, there has not yet been any investigation on the effects of long-term RF radiation from cell phones on kidney cells.
Objectives
The aim of this article was to understand the in-vitro study, to investigate the effect of long-term RF radiation emitted from mobile phones on healthy kidney cells.
Materials And Methods
1. Cell Culture And Radiation From Mobile Phones
Cultures of healthy human kidney cells were obtained from Isfahan University of Medical Sciences Laboratory (Isfahan, Iran) and were cultured in 25 mL culture flasks in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium (DMEM Gibco Laboratories, Sergiy Pontoise, France) containing 10 % Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS Gibco Laboratories, Cergy Pontoise, France), 100 Contain U/ml penicillin, 2 mM glutamine, and 100 mg/ml streptomycin (Gibco Laboratories, France). The cultures were incubated in ambient air at 37°C, 5% CO2 humidification.
Cells were trypsinized immediately before the experiment with trypsin-EDTA (Gibco, Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) and plated at a density of 104 cells/well in 96-well culture plates. The cells were divided into three groups and kept in three batches. The first and second groups (exposed group) were exposed to the mobile phone simulator for 1 and 2 h/day, respectively, for 8 days. The simulator produced 900 MHz RF radiation to simulate GSM connectivity. The distance between the simulator antenna and each sample was kept at 2.5 cm. The cells of the third group (control group) completed the assay cycle without irradiation.
2. Mobile Phone Simulator
RF radiation exposure was delivered using a mobile phone simulator (developed at the Department of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences). In this experiment, as is the case with mobile phones, 900 MHz radiation (with a wavelength of approximately 33.4 cm) was used, and the power for the exposure was set to 1.0 W.
3. MTT Test
The MTT assay involves the conversion of MTT from water-soluble to insoluble formazan. MTT was dissolved in sterile phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) at 5 mg/mL, filtered for storage in dark conditions at 4°C for less than 3 weeks.
Five wells of a 96-well plate were reserved for each experimental condition. To avoid possible contamination of the medium product, the medium was refreshed every three days, without causing any damage to the adhered cells. For the MTT assay, according to our original protocol, the solution with appropriate concentration (10 μL MTT solution in each 100 μL media) was added to each well and the plates were incubated at 37°C for 4 h.
After the incubation step, 100 λ of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was added to dissolve the formazan crystals in the well after removing any remaining MTT solution. For adequate solubilization, plates containing cells were shaken for 5 min using a plate shaker.
Absorbance reading of each well was done at 570 nm (single wavelength) using an ELISA reader (State Fax 2100, Awareness Technology Inc., USA). Note that the amount of purple formazan crystals formed is directly related to the number of viable cells. The same study was repeated three times independently to prevent internal variability of the assay.
Although subject areas have an impact on the overall analysis of the results, this does not mean that the subject area should have no impact on the overall result interpretation. Therefore all subjects selected for studies in cell survival were expected to suffer from these various effects. Hypothetical cell survival analysis was performed, specifically with treatments being administered at different times. It will therefore be necessary to conduct experiments on those cell types and growth to compare and contrast their results with those from the current experiment.
4. Ethical Issues
The study was expected to conform to the principles of the Declaration of Hail Sink-e, and was approved by the Ethical Committee of Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Iran (grant # 1394-43).
5. Statistical analysis
Mean and standard deviation values calculated from cell survival were statistically significant differences between control and exposed group evaluated using ANOVA method in SPSS version 16.0 (Chicago, IL, USA). A significance level of 0.05 was considered for the tests.
Results
The results showed that exposure to radiation from a mobile phone simulator reduced kidney cell survival in those exposed. Using ANOVA, a significant decrease in cell survival was observed with the exposed compared to the third group (control one) (p = 0.014) (Figure 1). This means that exposure to a 900 MHz mobile phone simulator after 1 to 2 hours of irradiation per day for 8 consecutive days affected kidney cell survival in the assay. No statistically significant difference was observed between the irradiated groups (P > 0.05). This means that significant differences were observed between the groups irradiated 1 and 2 hours per day. Thus, while there were differences in cell death on different days across groups (day effect), these differences were similar across groups.
Discussion
The boom in mobile phone usage in society is currently a unique technological advancement that is impacting lives around the world. Due to the proximity of cell phone antennae to the pelvic organs, radiation from such phones raised concerns over the biological effects of RF radiation on the kidneys. Although the usual requirements are for 900 MHz mobile phones to be used in Iran or any other country, it is common to carry them in a belt near the kidneys. To our knowledge, the direct biological effects on kidneys from mobile phone RF radiation were not widely researched. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the biological effects of long-term RF radiation from mobile phones.
In this work, kidney cells were irradiated with RF radiation from a mobile phone simulator for one to two hours daily for eight days. It must be said that for the purpose of studying the hazardous effect, the duration and frequency of mobile phone use are very important factors; However, the exact measurement varies greatly from person to person. Therefore, the estimated average time consumption of mobile phone use for exposure to RF-rays was taken into account.
The results of our study indicated that kidney cell survival was reduced by mobile phone RF irradiation (p = 0.014), but there was no significant difference between the irradiated groups (p > 0.05). In other words, there was no significant difference between the 1 and 2 h/day irradiated groups.
Recent studies related to the kidneys have indicated that melatonin plays a regulatory role within kidney physiology, affecting urine volume. Additionally, sites of specific melatonin receptors have been identified within the renal system. This point is quite indicative of the direct and indirect involvement of melatonin in kidney functions. Of note, melatonin has specific receptors, found in kidney tissue, which have serious biological meaning referring to their effects on cellular actions proceeding through intracellular signaling and transduction through the membrane.
Oktem et al further reported that exposure to mobile phone RF radiation had significant effects on rat kidneys. It also pointed to the fact that melatonin, as an efficient, “free radical scavenger”, has some protective effects against mobile phone-induced kidney impairment of rats.
Additionally, it has been shown that RF radiation also creates free radicals and decreases serum melatonin levels. Al-Gleb et al reported that in the kidneys of rats exposed to electromagnetic radiation by mobile phones, mononuclear leukocyte infiltration between the renal tubules was greater than that in the group exposed to sham radiation.
They also noted that some glomerulus were atrophied, and some kidney tubules became vacuated after irradiation. The results for this study were obtained using a commercial 1.0 W mobile phone simulator at 900 MHz to reproduce the reality of human performance. Since in vivo studies have inevitable limitations, the present work was an in vitro experiment studying kidney cells exposed to cell phones. What is more interesting is that in vivo investigations, whether on animals or humans, could provide strong evidence about EMF effects.
Conclusion
This study focused on the biological effects of long-term RF radiation from mobile phones on kidney cells. The results indicated that exposure to mobile phones affects the survival of kidney cells in vitro. Furthermore, further in vivo studies on mammalian subjects are necessary to establish the correct picture regarding the effects of mobile phone radiation on the kidney. However, such assessment of potential mobile phone radiation effects on a living organism is a complex process that requires concerted efforts from multiple scientific disciplines.
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