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

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

Description

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.

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 7
• Langue: English

Extrait

BioMagnetic Research and Technology

BioMedCentral

Open Access Research Effects of electromagnetic fields of low frequency and low intensity on rat metabolism 1 23 1 Gabriele Gerardi, AntonellaDe Ninno*, MarcoProsdocimi ,Vanni Ferrari, 3 41 Filippo Barbaro, Sandro Mazzariol, Daniele Bernardiniand 3 Getullio Talpo

1 2 Address: Departmentof Veterinary Clinical Sciences, University of Padua, Agripolis, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Padua, Italy,ENEA, 3 4 CR Frascati, Dept. FIM, Via E. Fermi, 27 00044, Frascati, Rome, Italy, PROMETEOS.r.l., Via Marostica 2, 35100, Padua, Italy andDepartment of Public Health, Comparative Pathology, and Veterinary Hygiene, University of Padua, Italy Email: Gabriele Gerardi  [e-mail]; Antonella De Ninno*  [e-mail]; Marco Prosdocimi  [e-mail]; Vanni Ferrari  [e-mail]; Filippo Barbaro  [e-mail]; Sandro Mazzariol  [e-mail]; Daniele Bernardini  [e-mail]; Getullio Talpo  [e-mail] * Corresponding author

Published: 1 April 2008Received: 7 December 2007 Accepted: 1 April 2008 BioMagnetic Research and Technology2008,6:3 doi:10.1186/1477-044X-6-3 This article is available from: http://www.biomagres.com/content/6/1/3 © 2008 Gerardi et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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.

Background Exposure to artificially generated electromagnetic (e.m.) fields is a common occurrence for a large number of indi viduals: its biological consequences, still largely unknown, are being studied in experimental animals [1 4] and in humans [5]. At present, the body functioning is generally formulated in terms of biomolecules and their interactions; the living state is described in terms of molecular biology. In this picture, electromagnetism

barely fits. It has been believed for a long time that biolog ical dynamics should be accounted for by classical phys ics, but this conceptual frame can explain neither the spacetime order existing in living matter nor the selectiv ity of biocomponent interactions. Some of the Authors of the present paper have previously studied the living mat ter from a physical point of view as longordered coherent systems, where the electromagnetic fields play the para mount role of information transducers [68].

Page 1 of 8 (page number not for citation purposes)