Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 6, 2025
Primary Microglia Isolation from Mixed Glial Cell Cultures of Neonatal Rat Brain Tissue
Published on: August 15, 2012
Acute exposure of microwave impairs attention process by activating microglial inflammation
Shaofei Jiang1,2, Yingping Ma1,3, Yuan Shi1
1Department of Neurobiology, Beijing Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
Background:
Attention provides the foundation for cognitions, which was shown to be affected by microwave (MW) radiation. With the ubiquitous of microwaves, public concerns regarding the impact of MW radiation on attention has hence been increased. Our study aims to investigate the potential effect and mechanism of acute microwave exposure on attention.
Results:
We identified obvious impairment of attention in mice by the five-choice serial reaction time (5-CSRT) task. Proteomic analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) revealed neuroinflammation and microglial activation potentially due to acute MW exposure. Moreover, biochemical analysis further confirmed microglial activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of mice subjected to acute MW exposure. Finally, minocycline, a commercially available anti-inflammatory compound, attenuated neuroinflammation, inhibited the upregulation of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) including NR2A and NR2B, and also accelerated the attentional recovery after MW exposure.
Conclusions:
We believe that microglial activation and NMDAR upregulation likely contribute to inattention induced by acute MW exposure, and we found that minocycline may be effective in preventing such process.
