Effects of pulse microwave radiation pre-and post-natally on developing mice (2)

Chaing H,

Paper presented at Erice, Sicily, Italy, November 21-25, 1999

An experiment was performed to observe the bioeffects of pulse microwave radiation on developing mice, especially on developing brain . In this experiment, pregnant mice were irradiated or sham-irradiated throughout the pregnancy. From day 3 to day 20 after birth, half of the offspring delivered by irradiated mice continued to be irradiated. These we identify as the RR group. The remainders were sham irradiated and are called the RC group. The same procedure was followed for the offspring delivered by sham irradiated mice, and those groups were identified as CR and CC, respectively.

The PW source was the same as we used before. The incident average power densities for dams and offspring were 8 mW/cm² and 1 mW/cm², respectively. As the long axes of the pregnant mice were parallel to the magnetic field, the SARs for dams were from 3.0 to 3.5 mW/g.

Since their offspring were too small to fix their orientation, the SARs can't be estimated. The dams and their offspring were exposed 5 hours daily. Behavior tests including surface righting, auditory startle, forelimb hanging and spontaneous activity were carried out during their development.

At the age of 22 days, infant mice of each group were decapitated. The body weight ratios of thymus and adrenal were observed. Quantitative analyses with a microspectrophotometer were conducted for SDH, MAO and CA in their hypothalamus and SDH in their liver.

The results of behavior tests showed that no significant difference in the mean days when they achieved the criterion for surface righting, auditory startle and eye opening was observed between any two groups. There was also no significant difference in the mean hanging time per trial between groups. The number of exploration activity in the RR group was reduced than other groups in the spontaneous activity test. No significant difference in body weight ratios of thymus and adrenal was observed except that the ratios of thymus in RR group was lower than CC group in statistics.

The results of histochemical analyses showed that PW exposure induced a significant decrease in SDH, with the highest activity occurring in the CC group and lessening activity in the RC, CR, and RR