title: Effects of low level electromagnetic field exposure at 2.45 GHz on rat cornea.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effects of low level electromagnetic field (low level-EMF) exposure, as frequently encountered in daily life, on the normal rat cornea using histological and stereological method.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-two adult male Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups: Study group (n = 11) and control group (n = 11). Rats in the study group were exposed to 2.45 GHz microwave (MW) radiation (11.96 ± 0.89 V/m), 0.25 W/kg specific absorption rate (SAR) for 2 hours each day for 21 days. The corneal thickness and the anterior epithelium corneal thickness were measured using two different methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using the histological method, the mean corneal thicknesses in the control and study group were 278.9 ± 54.5 μm, and 272.4 ± 85.6 μm, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups (p > 0.05). The anterior corneal epithelium thickness was 28.1 ± 4.9 μm in the control group and 31.7 ± 5.5 μm in the study group. There were statistically differences between the groups with regard to the thickness of anterior epithelium (p < 0.05). In the measurement made by the stereological method, the percentage of the cornea occupied by anterior corneal epithelium was 15.94% in the control group and 17.9% in the study group. Despite the fact that there was a relation between increased anterior epithelial area (AEA) and radiation exposure, no statistically significant relationship in area fraction of each compartment was found between the control and study groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results of this preliminary study show that exposure to MW radiation might cause alterations in the rat cornea.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, Samsun, Turkey. aysegula@omu.edu.tr
authors.forename: Ayşegül
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akar
authors.forename: M Önder
authors.initials: MÖ
authors.lastname: Karayiğit
authors.forename: Durmuş
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bolat
authors.forename: M Erdem
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Gültiken
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yarim
authors.forename: Gastone
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Castellani
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D000818:Animals; D003315:Cornea / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013997:Time Factors