EUROPEAN RADIATION RESEARCH 2012

Effects of EMP Exposure on Rat Brain Microglia

17 Oct 2012, 16:18

1m

Poster Hall (Vietri sul Mare)

poster preferred Non-Ionizing Radiation Poster Session 2

Speaker

Prof. Gui-Rong Ding (Department of Radiation Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University)

Description

Objective: To investigate the effect of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) exposure on rat brain microglia and its possible mechanism. Methods: Adult male SD rats and primary cultured rat brain microglia cells were exposed or sham exposed to EMP at 200 kV/m for 200 pulses, the repetition rate was 1 Hz. The activation of microglia was determined by CD11b immunocytochemistry, the protein and phosphorylated protein levels of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK ) pathway signal molecules were determined by Western Blot, the levels of cytokines and nitric oxide (NO) in brain cortex and primary cultured microglia cells were determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and commercial kit at 1, 6, 12 and 24 h after EMP exposure. Results: It was found that the the number of CD11b immunopositive cells increased at 1h , reached the peak at 6h, and recovered to sham level at 24h after EMP exposure, moreover, the levels of cytokines (such as TNF-α and IL-10) and NO also transiently changed within 24hs after EMP exposure. In addition, The protein level of p38 and phosphorylated p38 but not ERK and JNK transiently increased after EMP exposure both in vivo and in vitro studies. p38 inhibitor (SB203580) pretreatment partly prevented EMP-induced the alterarion in secretion function of microglia. Conclusions: These results suggested that EMP exposure could activate rat brain microglia and affected its secretion function, and p38MAPK pathway was involved in this process. This work was supported by the Research Fund of National Natural Science Foundation of China [31170798，81072272 and 81102091]