Improvement of Spatial Memory Disorder and Hippocampal Damage by Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields in an Alzheimer’s Disease Rat Model

Abstract

Although some epidemiological investigations showed a potential association between long-term exposure of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), no reasonable mechanism can explain this association, and the related animal experiments are rare. In this study, ELF-EMF exposure (50 Hz 400 µT 60 d) combined with D-galactose intraperitoneal (50 mg/kg, q.d., 42 d) and Aβ25-35 hippocampal (5 μl/unilateral, bilateral, single-dose) injection was implemented to establish a complex rat model. Then the effects of ELF-EMF exposure on AD development was studied by using the Morris water maze, pathological analysis, and comparative proteomics. The results showed that ELF-EMF exposure delayed the weight gain of rats, and partially improved cognitive and clinicopathologic symptoms of AD rats. The differential proteomic analysis results suggest that synaptic transmission, oxidative stress, protein degradation, energy metabolism, Tau aggregation, and inflammation involved in the effects mentioned above. Therefore, our findings indicate that certain conditions of ELF-EMF exposure could delay the development of AD in rats.