%0 Journal Article
%T Electromagnetic Fields, Oxidative Stress, and Neurodegeneration
%A Claudia Consales
%A Caterina Merla
%A Carmela Marino
%A Barbara Benassi
%J International Journal of Cell Biology
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/683897
%X Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) originating both from both natural and manmade sources permeate our environment. As people are continuously exposed to EMFs in everyday life, it is a matter of great debate whether they can be harmful to human health. On the basis of two decades of epidemiological studies, an increased risk for childhood leukemia associated with Extremely Low Frequency fields has been consistently assessed, inducing the International Agency for Research on Cancer to insert them in the 2B section of carcinogens in 2001. EMFs interaction with biological systems may cause oxidative stress under certain circumstances. Since free radicals are essential for brain physiological processes and pathological degeneration, research focusing on the possible influence of the EMFs-driven oxidative stress is still in progress, especially in the light of recent studies suggesting that EMFs may contribute to the etiology of neurodegenerative disorders. This review synthesizes the emerging evidences about this topic, highlighting the wide data uncertainty that still characterizes the EMFs effect on oxidative stress modulation, as both pro-oxidant and neuroprotective effects have been documented. Care should be taken to avoid methodological limitations and to determine the patho-physiological relevance of any alteration found in EMFs-exposed biological system. 1. Introduction Over the past several decades people have been constantly exposed to electric (E) and magnetic (H) fields from both industrial and domestic uses. The EMFs are produced not only for technological applications (e.g., power lines mobile phones), but they are now widely used also in medicine for diagnostic (e.g., magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner and microwave imaging) and therapeutic purposes (e.g., radiofrequency and microwave ablation and hyperthermia) [1, 2]. The increased social and public interest in this subject, based on the epidemiological data associating the extra risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, and miscarriage with the EMFs exposure of the power line radiation [3¨C9], prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) Report (2007) and WHO Environmental Health Criteria (EHC) Report (2007) to issue precautions against the ELF-EMFs [10, 11]. 1.1. EMFs Spectrum and Physical Interaction Quantities The EMFs coupling with biological systems depends on the frequency range of the employed signals, as well as on their characteristics as amplitude, modulation, waveform and polarization [12]. Mainly three categories of EMFs signals can be
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijcb/2012/683897/