Introduction

The use of mobile phones has become a common phenomenon, with 6.9 billion subscriptions worldwide. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified the electromagnetic fields emitted from mobile phone devices as group 2b, i.e. “maybe being carcinogenic to humans”. The aim of present study was to investigate the potential effects of microwave radiation on the proliferation activity of parotid gland by measuring Ki-67 protein levels.

Material and methods

Sixteen male adult New Zealand white rabbits were divided fifty-fifty into control and experimental groups. The experimental group was exposed to the radiation one hour daily, six days every week for 6 months. The rabbits were sacrificed according to ethical methods and parotid glands were removed after the exposure period has ended; so, sixteen biopsies stained with monoclonal antibody Ki-67 were obtained. The method of calculating the percentage of immunopositive cells from the total cells of fields was studied by light microscope at high magnification × 400.

Results

At 95% confidence level, there were statistically significant differences in the mean positive ratio of Ki-67 protein between the exposed and unexposed group of rabbits to microwave-radiation.

Conclusions

The increase in immunoexpression to Ki-67 in the experimental group can be explained by an increase in proliferation within the parotid glands in response to harm caused by mobile phone radiation.