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. 2008 Apr 1:6:3.
doi: 10.1186/1477-044X-6-3.

Effects of electromagnetic fields of low frequency and low intensity on rat metabolism

Gabriele Gerardi  1 , Antonella De Ninno, Marco Prosdocimi, Vanni Ferrari, Filippo Barbaro, Sandro Mazzariol, Daniele Bernardini, Getullio Talpo
Affiliations

Effects of electromagnetic fields of low frequency and low intensity on rat metabolism

Gabriele Gerardi et al. Biomagn Res Technol. .

Abstract

A series of experiments on rats have been performed, to study the effects of long time (50 days) exposure to electromagnetic fields of extremely low frequency (ELF, i.e. less than 100 Hz) and amplitude (non thermal), testing whether the metabolic processes would be affected. The background lies on recent observations on the behaviour of isolated enzymes in vitro exposed to EFL fields. In these experiments, the cyclotron (or Larmor) frequency of the metallic ion has been used to "stimulate" the metalloproteins redox-active site, thus obtaining a clear variation of the enzyme functionality. In this paper we have extended for the first time the check to more complex animal metabolism. The novelty of this approach implies that a large amount of data had to be analyzed since it was not possible, in principle, to select only a few parameters among all the potential effects. Several biochemical parameters have been evaluated by comparing their values during the periods of exposure (field ON) and non exposure (field OFF). The evidence that long term exposure to electromagnetic fields with a well defined frequency may have relevant effects on parameters such as body weight, blood glucose and fatty acid metabolism has been obtained.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Set of exposure. Each coil has a diameter of 75 cm and the distance between cages is 37 cm.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Measured static magnetic field (geo magnetic field) B0 along the plane of each of the 5 cages.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Weight increase of OFA (Sprague Dawley) rats during the exposure to ELF weak magnetic field. The abscissa shows the age of the animals in weeks. Panel (A): adult rats, the measured data are compared to historical data as available in the IFFA CREDO database for this strain; panel (B): aging rats, no weight increase is foreseen for this group. The region between the dashed lines shows the period of 1 week when the field was turned off.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Glucose content in blood of OFA (Sprague Dawley) rats during the exposure to ELF weak magnetic field. Glucose levels were estimated at day 1,15, 29, 36 and 50. The region between the dashed lines shows the period of 1 week when the field was turned off. Error bars are ± 1 standard deviation.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Ratio between arachidonic and linoleic acid of OFA (Sprague Dawley) rats during the exposure to ELF magnetic field in adult and aging animals. Data were estimated at day 1,15, 29, 36 and 50. The region between the dashed lines shows the period of 1 week when the field was turned off. Panel (A) shows the variation in each single rat: it can be observed the extreme variability of the individual response to the external stimulus enhanced for the aging rats. Panel (B) shows the averages of the panel (A) grouped in two subsets. Error bars are ± 1 standard deviation.
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