Y.A. KHADRAWY*, NAWAL A. AHMED**, HEBA S. ABOUL EZZ**, N.M. RADWAN**
*Medical Physiology Department, National Research Center, Giza, Egypt.
**Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
Abstract. The present study aims to investigate the effect of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) generated by mobile phones on the levels of amino acid neurotransmitters; glutamate, aspartate, GABA, glycine and taurine in the cortex of adult and young rats. Several studies showed that EMR could influence normal brain physiology, probably by changing cortical excitability. In the present study, adult and young rats were exposed to EMR for one hour/day. Amino acids were measured after 1 hour, 1, 2 and 4 months of daily EMR exposure and after 1 month of stopping exposure that extended daily for 4 months. The present data showed that in adult rats EMR induced significant changes in the cortical levels of some studied amino acids throughout the exposure periods. However, in young rats EMR induced significant changes after 4 months of daily exposure and after stopping exposure. It could be suggested that the changes in amino acid neurotransmitters may underlie the EMR-induced changes in cortical excitability.
Key words: Electromagnetic radiation, amino acid neurotransmitters, cortex, rats.