A comparative study on the increased radioresistance to lethal doses of gamma rays after exposure to microwave radiation and oral intake of flaxseed oil

Background: Mobile phones, use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range. On the other hand, there is only one report on radioprotective effects of flaxseed oil. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of irradiation of rats with microwaves and/or treatment with flaxseed oil on the induction of adaptive response to a subsequent lethal dose (LD) of gamma rays. Materials and Methods: Eighty male rats were randomly divided into 6 groups of 13-15 animals. The animals in the 1st to 5th groups received microwave exposure, microwave+flaxseed oil (dissolved in olive oil), flaxseed (continued after LD), flaxseed, and olive oil. At day 5, all animals were whole-body irradiated with a previously reported LD 50/30 of 8 Gy gamma radiation. The 6th group (controls) received the same LD 50/30, but there was not any other treatment before or after the LD. Results: No death event was observed during days 1-9 after LD irradiation in either group. At day 10, death events started in the 4th group. Thirty days after irradiation of the animals, the survival fractions for the control group, as expected, was 53.3% while there was no death event in the 1st group (survival rate of 100% in microwave-pretreated animals). The survival fractions for the 2nd to 5th groups were 69.2%, 92.3%, 46.1%, and 61.5%, respectively. Conclusion: While these findings open new horizons in radiation protection, the radioresistance induced by microwave radiations emitted by a mobile phone may interfere with the outcome of any subsequent therapeutic application of photons or radioisotopes. Iran. J. Radiat. Res., 2011 9(1): 9-14