The Effect of Extremely Low Frequency Pulsed Electromagnetic Field on anxiety and cortisol level in rat

Kohzad, Susan; Bolouri, Bahram; Nikbakht, Farnaz; Kohzad, Zahra

doi:10.22041/ijbme.2012.13107

The Effect of Extremely Low Frequency Pulsed Electromagnetic Field on anxiety and cortisol level in rat

Document Type : Full Research Paper

Authors

Susan Kohzad ¹

Bahram Bolouri ²

Farnaz Nikbakht ³

Zahra Kohzad ⁴

¹ M.Sc, Department of Medical Physics and Engineering, Tehran University of Medical Sciences

² Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Physics, Iran University of Medical Sciences

³ Assistant Professor ,Physiology Research Center, College of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences

⁴ M.Sc, Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University of Ilam

https://doi.org/10.22041/ijbme.2012.13107

Abstract

There is a growing public concern that the extremely low frequency (ELF) range of the environmental electromagnetic fields may have adverse biological effects. In this frequency range, 217Hz is the modulating signal being used in Global System of Mobile. This study investigated the possible effects of 217 Hz pulsed electromagnetic field on the anxiety and the cortisol level in rats. Twenty four male Wistar rat (200 - 250 g) were randomly grouped into test, sham and control. Using a pair of Helmholtz coil system, the test group was exposed to a uniform pulsed EMF of 200µT intensity for 4 h/day for 21 days. A similar procedure with no field was repeated for the sham group. All groups were tested in an `Elevated- plus` maze system. Then via the heart puncture scheme, the blood samples were collected. The serum cortisol levels were evaluated using ELISA method.The ANOVA test revealed no significant differences for the Elevated- plus maze test. Serum cortisol level was significantly higher in test group compared to the control group.These findings were in consistent with the work of others indicating that low frequency band of EMF might not have any effect on the anxiety but it increases the cortisol levels as a stress marker.

Keywords

Extremely low frequency (ELF)

Anxiety

Elevated- plus maze

cortisol

Subjects

Bioelectromagnetics

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