Wf. Vijayalaxmi,"pickard et al., Micronuclei in the peripheral blood and bone marrow cells of rats exposed to 2450 MHz radiofrequency radiation, INT J RAD B, 77(11), 2001, pp. 1109-1115
Purpose: To determine the incidence of micronuclei in peripheral blood and
bone marrow cells of rats exposed continuously for 24 h to 2450 MHz continu
ous wave radiofrequency radiation (RFR) at an average whole-body specific a
bsorption rate (SAR) of 12 W/kg.
Materials and methods: Eight adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to
2450 MHz RFR in circularly polarized waveguides. Eight sham-exposed rats w
ere kept in similar waveguides without the transmission of RFR. Four rats w
ere treated with mitomycin-C (MMC) and used as positive controls. All rats
were necropsied 24 h after the end of RFR and sham exposures, and after the
24 h treatment with MMC. Peripheral blood and bone marrow smears were exam
ined to determine the frequency of micronuclei (MN) in polychromatic erythr
ocytes (PCE).
Results: The results indicated that the incidence of MN/2000 PCE were not s
ignificantly different between RFR- and sham-exposed rats. The group mean f
requencies of MN in the peripheral blood were 2.3+/-0.7 in RFR- exposed rat
s and 2.1+/-0.6 in sham-exposed rats. In bone marrow cells, the average MN
incidence was 3.8+/-1.0 in RFR-exposed rats and 3.4+/-0.7 in sham-exposed r
ats. The corresponding values in positive control rats treated with MMC wer
e 23.5+/-4.7 in the peripheral blood and 33.8+/-7.4 in bone marrow cells.
Conclusion: There was no evidence for the induction of MN in peripheral blo
od and bone marrow cells of rats exposed for 24 h to 2450 MHz continuous wa
ve RFR at a whole body average SAR of 12 W/kg.