Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jchemneu Mobile phone induced cognitive and neurochemical consequences Anjali Sharma a, ⁎ , Samta Sharma a , Sadhana Shrivastava a , Pramod Kumar Singhal b , Sangeeta Shukla a a UNESCO-Trace Element Satellite Centre, School of Studies in Zoology, Jiwaji University, 474011 Gwalior, M.P., India b Madhav Institute of Technology and Science, 474005 Gwalior, M.P., India ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Microwave Brain Cognitive Hippocampus Oxidative stress ABSTRACT With the rapid advances in technology, extensive use of mobile phones has increased the risk of health problems. This study was performed to find out the effect of mobile phone frequency on male Wistar rats. Animals were divided into two groups (n = 6 in each group). Group one was considered as control and group two (experi- mental group) was exposed to microwave radiation (2100 MHz) for 4 hours/day (5 days/week) for 3 months. Exposure of microwave radiation frequency showed significant alterations in cholinesterase activity, muscular strength, learning ability and anxiety. MWR exposure was also associated with significant alteration in the oxidative defense system and hippocampus degeneration. Histopathological observations clearly depicted the neural degeneration. Thus, it can be concluded that MWR significantly affects the central nervous system and may lead to many severe illnesses. This study may reveal a platform to understand its toxic effect and can further be used for amendment in current guidelines of mobile radiation. 1. Introduction Non-ionizing radiation (NIR) is widespread in human environment. The most frequent sources of NIR are mobile phones and cell towers, which emits potential microwave radiation (MWR) in human environ- ment. Recently, the level of electromagnetic radiation was increased by a thousand fold from artificial sources. There are 7.4 billion tele- communication subscribers in the world. India is the second largest user of telecommunication and third largest user for internet. This data shows that we are the key player in the mobile market. Mobile has become an indispensable part of our life. The increasing mobile phone mediated microwave exposure is an alarm for human health. Mobile phone radiation generally affects the brain, especially central nervous system. However, central nervous system is largely affected area, as 80% of the radiation emitted by mobile phone is absorbed by the brain (Kesari et al., 2013). Extensive use of mobile phone shows some phy- siological effects like, insomnia, dizziness and lethargic behavior. It also caused neurological damage followed by headaches, changes in sleep patterns, modifications in neuronal electrical activity, increases in the permeability of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and disturbances in neurotransmitter release. Concomitantly, growing evidences suggested that MWR also induces oxidative stress in the brain and in other tissues which plays a critical role in DNA damage, abnormal cell proliferation, inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction (Kivrak et al., 2017; Sahin et al., 2016). Oxidative stress is an imbalance between the production of reactive species which may alters the learning behaviour, memory and increases anxiety like behavior (Patki et al., 2013). However, there are various studies which suggest that MWR depicted the changes in cognitive functions, but the mechanisms behind cognitive changes have not been clearly defined yet. Hippocampus is more sensitive to oxida- tive stress and responsible for memory, therefore, we have assessed the different region of hippocampus to link the toxicity with cognitive and behavioural alterations. This study suggests that microwave possess toxic effect on the brain, which may lead to generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) which further caused neural and genomic da- mages. Therefore, this study was designed to underlying mechanisms for such radiation-related cognitive deficits. The principal objective of this study was to find out the effect of continuous electromagnetic ex- posure for 3 months. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Chemicals All chemicals were of analytical grade and procured from Sigma Aldrich Company (USA), E Merck (Germany). The other reagents used in the study will be procured from Ranbaxy, Sigma and Rankem etc. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchemneu.2019.101684 Received 23 June 2019; Received in revised form 20 September 2019; Accepted 20 September 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: anjali.noida11@gmail.com (A. Sharma). Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy 102 (2019) 101684 Available online 22 September 2019 0891-0618/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T