A pre-exposure to RF-EMF can enhance the immuneresponses of mice following Salmonella Typhimuriumand Klebsiella pneumoniae infections

The question of whether low levels of non-ionizing radiationssuch as the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (rf-emf) can induce thesame positive immune responses remains unanswered. this study aimed toinvestigate the effects of non-ionizing rf-emf on some parameters of theimmune system in an animal model following infectionwith salmonella typhimurium and klebsiella pneumoniae. materials andmethods: male balb/c mice were exposed to rf-emfs generated by acommon gsm mobile phone for 3 days. animals were infected with k.pneumonia or s. typhimurium on the 4th day. on the7th day after injection,blood samples were collected by cardiac puncture. the specific antibodiesagainst bacteria were determined by agglutination method and serum levelsof the cytokines were measured using the elisa method. moreover, theleukocytes count was measured using a cell counter. results: the levels ofspecific antibodies against bacteria were higher in non-irradiated micecompared to irradiated mice. there were no significant differences betweenthe irradiated and non-irradiated mice regarding the total blood leukocytecount. the mean serum levels of ifn-γ and il-17 after infection with k.pneumoniae were significantly higher in the irradiated mice (p<0.001).conclusions: low levels of rf-emf can stimulate the immune responses in themice pre-exposed to rf-emf. this study provides further evidence supportingthat exposure to certain levels of rf-emf can stimulate the immune system.these adaptive responses may be applied to cope with the increasedsusceptibility of the astronauts to infections during a deep space mission.