Table 1.
General characteristics of the included studies.
| Study ID | Study design | Target group | Exposure | Exposure duration | Outcomes | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| K Fritze et al., 1997 [ 25 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Male Wistar rats | 890-915Hz, SAR 0.31.57.5 W/kg | 4 h | The proliferation of cells increased. The expression of astrocyte and microglial marker proteins was altered. | Germany |
| A Schirmacher et al., 2000 [ 49 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Animal Astrocytes of Male Wistar rats | 1.8 GHz, SAR 0.3 w/kg | 4 d | GFAP mRNA levels did not rise. | Germany |
| Anne-Laure Mausset-Bonnefont et al., 2004 [ 43 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Adult male rats Wistar | 900 MHz, SAR 6 w/kg | 15 min | Immunoreactivity to GFAP has increased (in cortex, hippocampus, and striatum) | France |
| Jae-Seon Lee et al., 2006 [ 53 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Animal Rat Primary Astrocytes | 1763 MHz RF radiation CMDA, SAR 2 W/kg | -- | There was no stress response elicited by RF exposure. TPA-induced phosphorylation of MAPK | South Korea |
| Thorleif Thorlin et al., 2007 [ 47 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Animal Rat Primary Astrocytes | 900 MHz GSM, SAR of 3 W/kg | 4 or 24 h | Microwave radiation has no influence on glial cells, astroglial morphology, or microglia cell morphology. | Sweden |
| Tian-Yong Zhao et al., 2007 [ 44 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Animal Pregnant female ICR mice, Primary astrocytes | 1900 MHz | 2h | Short-term cell phone exposure in astrocytes, RF radiation can upregulate components of apoptotic pathways. | USA |
| A Höytö et al., 2007 [ 54 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Human and Animal Secondary astrocytes (Murine L929 fibroblasts, rat C6 glioblastoma cells, human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells), and rat primary astrocytes | 872 MHz CW RF radiation, GSM | 2, 8, or 24 hours | ODC activity in primary astrocytes was statistically considerably reduced. | Finland |
| Elsa Brillaud et al., 2007 [ 26 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal 48 male Sprague–Dawley rats | SAR=6W/kg, 900MHz signal | 2, 3, 6, and 10 days | GSM induces glial reactivity. Hypertrophy of glial cells, | France |
| Mohamed Ammari et al., 2008 [ 27 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Twenty-four male Sprague Dawley rats | 900 MHz, 1.5, and 6 w/kg | 5 days a week for 24 weeks for 45 min/day at 1.5 w/kg and 15 min/day at 6 w/kg | Short time GSM exposure induced persistent astroglia activation. | France |
| Giovanna Del Vecchio et al., 2009 [ 56 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Animal SN56 septal neurons | 900 MHz GSM, SAR 0.5 w/kg | -- | RF did not affect the vitality of cortical neurons. RF had no cooperative effects with glutamate or 25-35AA beta-amyloid. | Italy |
| Xuesen Yang et al., 2010 [ 45 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Animal Mouse microglial cell line N9 | 2.45 GHz, SAR 6 W/kg | 20 min | EMF was shown to increase JAK2 and STAT3 phosphorylation significantly. | China |
| Mohamed Ammari et al., 2010 [ 28 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Forty-eight male Sprague-Dawley rats | 900 MHz EMF, SAR 1.5 W/kg | 45, 15 min | A rise in GFAP expression in several brain regions. | France |
| Gary W Arendash et al., 2010 [ 29 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal 96 mice carrying the mutant AβPPK670N, M671L gene (AβPPsw) | 918 MHz, SAR 0.25 w/kg | Long term EMF | Increased neuronal activity, CBF, and decreased amyloid- (A) in the brain. | USA |
| Dhiraj Maskey et al., 2010 [ 30 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Male ICR mice (6 weeks old), 20–30 g (Orientbio Inc.) (n=20) | 835 MHz with low energy (SAR=1.6 W/kg) | 8 h/d for 3 months | Increase of GFAP and abnormal astrocytes. | South Korea |
| Tomonori Sakurai et al., 2011 [ 50 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Human fetus-derived astroglia cell SVGp12 | 2.45 GHz, continuous wave | 1, 4, 24 h | RF Exposure did not affect gene expression in SVGp12 cells. | Japan |
| M Carballo-Quintás et al., 2011 [ 31 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Seventy-two adult male Sprague-Dawley rats | 900 MHz EMF, SAR = 0.05 W/kg minimum and 0.18 W/kg maximum | 2 h | Elevated neuronal activation, glial reactivity, and GFAP expression. Reduced activity in the piriform and entorhinal cortices. | Spain |
| Aurélie Watilliaux et al., 2011 [ 32 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Female Wistar rats | 1800 MHz EMF, SAR 1.7 to 2.5 W/kg | -- | No influence on the abundance of HSP60, HSC70, or HSP90, as well as serine racemase, glutamate transporters, or GFAP. | France |
| Gary W Arendash et al., 2012 [ 33 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal 41 aged mice | 918 MHz, SAR 0.25-1.05 W/kg | -- | Lower regional CBF in the cerebral cortex. Freed/disaggregated Aβ was induced. | USA |
| Adamantia F Fragopoulou et al., 2012 [ 35 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal 18 healthy adult male mice | GSM 900 MHz, SAR 0.17-0.37w/kg, 1880–1900 MHz SAR 0.012-0.028 W/kg | 3 h daily for 8 months | EMF had a substantial impact on GFAP, Alpha-synuclein, GMF, and apoE. | Greece |
| Yu-xiao Liu et al., 2012 [ 52 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Animal Rat astrocytes and C6 glioma cells | 1950 MHz | 12, 24, 48 h | After 48 hours of exposure, an increase in Caspase-3 was seen in Astrocytes. | China |
| Suleyman Dasdag et al., 2013 [ 34 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal 17 Wistar Albino adult male rats | 900 MHz | 2 h / day Every week for 10 months | A protein, protein carbonyl, and malondialdehyde were more significant. | Turkey |
| Karima Maaroufi et al., 2014 [ 36 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Subjects Twenty-four one-month-old male Wistar rats | 900 MHz EMF, SAR = 0.05 W/kg minimum and 0.18 W/kg maximum | 21 | There are no synergistic effects between EMF and a high iron concentration. | Tunisia |
| Chunhai Chen et al., 2014 [ 57 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Animal Embryonic neural stem cells (eNSCs) (pregnant Balb/c mice) | 1800 MHz, SAR 4 W/kg | 1 and 3 days | Exposure to 1800 MHz RF-EMF affects eNSC neurite development but does not affect the ratio of eNSC differentiated neurons to astrocytes. | China |
| Yonghui Lu et al., 2014 [ 51 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Animal Mouse microglial cells (N9) and astroglial C8-D1A | 1800 MHz RF, SAR of 2.0 W/kg | 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 | RF irradiation elicited distinct pro-inflammatory responses in astrocytes and microglia, activating STAT3 in microglia but not astrocytes. | China |
| Suleyman Dasdag et al., 2015 [ 38 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal 14 Wistar Albino adult male rats | 900 MHz RF, SAR 0.0369 W/kg | 3 h per day (7 days a week) for 12 months | Reduced rno-miR107 and linked to AD. | Turkey |
| Stefan Court-Kowalski et al., 2015 [ 37 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Three groups of mice, comprised of 10 animals per group | 900 MHz, SAR 4 W/kg | 5 days/week | Astrogliosis hadn’t been produced. | Australia |
| Nicolas Petitdant et al., 2016 [ 40 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Seventeen pregnant female rats | RF EMF 900 MHz, SAR 0, 1.5, or 6W/kg | 45 min | Neurobiological impairment hadn’t been shown. | France |
| Amélie Barthélémy et al., 2016 [ 39 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | 6-week-old Sprague Dawley male rats (n = 68) | 900 MHz RF-EMF 0, 1.5, 6 W/kg | 15, 45 min | Total GFAP levels were higher in the striatum, hippocampus, and olfactory bulb. RF exposure induced astrogliosis. | France |
| Mikko Herrala et al., 2018 [ 55 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Animal Rat primary astrocytes | Continuous-wave (CW) or GSM-type 872 MHz GSM, SAR 6.0 W/kg | 24 | GSM exposure hadn’t induced genomic instability in primary astrocytes. | Finland |
| Aikaterina L Stefi et al., 2019 [ 48 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Human SH-SY5Y cells | 1800 MHz GSM, SAR; 0.23 W/kg | 3 times, for 10 min, for 2 days | Oxidative stress and cell death induction | Greece |
| Tsoy A et al., 2019 [ 46 ] | Experimental (in vitro) | Human and Animal Wistar rats’ astrocytes/Primary human astrocytes | EMF of 918 MHz/10 W peak power pulsed/SAR 0.20 W/kg | 60 min | Aß42-induced cellular and mitochondrial ROS in primary astrocytes are reduced by 918 MHz EMF. | Kazakhstan |
| Marc Bouji et al., 2020 [ 41 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Samaritan rat model of AD | 900MHz RF | 1 month (5 days/week) | Increased hippocampus heme oxygenase-1 (HO1) staining while decreasing corticosterone. Memory has been improved after RF-EMF exposure. Higher hippocampal oxidative stress. | France |
| Mei-Li Yang et al., 2020 [ 42 ] | Experimental (in vivo) | Animal Pregnant rats | 850-1 900 MHz mobile phone | 6 h/d and 24 h/d mobile phone radiation for 1-17 days | MBP and NF-L expression were down-regulated, whereas GFAP expression was up-regulated. | China |
MAPKs: Mitogen-activated protein kinases, ODC: Ornithine decarboxylase, CW: Continuous wave, Aβ 1–40: Beta-amyloid 1–40, MBP: Myelin basic protein, NF-L: Neurofilament-L, GFAP: Glial fibrillary acidic protein, EMF: Electromagnetic field, Aβ: Amyloid beta peptide, AD: Alzheimer’s disease, RF-EMF: Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, ROS: Reactive oxygen species, RF: Radiofrequency, CM-H2DCFDA: Chloromethyl derivative of 2’,7’-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate, NOX: NADPH oxidase, ERK 1/2: Extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2, HFIP: 1,1,1,3,3,3 hexafluoro-2-propanol, SAR: Specific absorption rate, GFAP: Glial fibrillary acidic protein, NADPH: Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate, STAT3: Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3, eNSCs: Embryonic neural stem cells, GSM: Global System for Mobile, p38MAPK: p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases, GLAST: Glutamate aspartate transporter, GLT-1: Glutamate transporter-1, Hsp90: Heat shock protein 90, Hsc70: Heat shock cognate 71 kDa protein