pre-exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields and induction of radioadaptive response in rats irradiated with high doses of x-rays

Background: some evidence shows that a pre-exposure to rf can mitigate the effects of subsequent exposures to high doses of ionizing radiation. objective: we aimed to assess the effect of a pre-exposure to non-ionizing rf radiation on survival, weight changes, food consumption, and water intake of lethally irradiated rats. material and methods: in this case-control study, we used a commercial mobile phone (gsm, 900/1800 mhz) as well as a 2.4 ghz wi-fi router as the sources of pre-exposure to rf radiation. forty-eight rats were randomly divided into six groups of control, “8 gy x-rays”, mobile phone, “mobile phone+8 gy”, wi-fi, and “wi-fi+8 gy”. then, the survival fraction, weight loss, water, and food consumption changes were compared in different groups. results: the survival analysis indicated that the survival rates in all of the exposed animals (“8 gy x-rays”, “mobile phone+8 gy”, “wi-fi+8 gy”) were significantly lower than the control, “wi-fi”, and “mobile phone” groups. the changes in survival rates of “mobile+8 gy”, “wi-fi+8 gy”, and 8 gy alone were not statistically significant. however, food and water intake were significantly affected by exposure to both rf pre-exposures and exposure to high dose ionizing radiation. conclusion: to the best of our knowledge, the existence of a dose window for the induction of ar can be the cause of the lack of ar in our experiment. our findings confirm that in a similar pattern with the adaptive responses induced by pre-exposure to ionizing radiation, the induction of adaptive response by rf-pre-exposures requires a minimum level of damage to trigger adaptive phenomena.