"Using a mouse model of radiofrequency radiation (RFR)-induced anxiety-like behaviors, we employed gut microbiota intervention, regulation of tryptophan metabolites, and other methods to investigate the impact of the gut-brain axis on brain function changes."
"It was found that gut microbiota dysbiosis disrupts tryptophan metabolism, leading to reduced serotonin (5-HT) levels and NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated neuronal pyroptosis in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)."
"Probiotic intervention restored microbial homeostasis, normalized central 5-HT metabolism, suppressed neuronal pyroptosis, and partially alleviated anxiety-like behaviors."
Exposure
"To investigate the effect of RFR on the behavior of mice, C57BL/6J male mice were exposed to 4.9 GHz RFR at 50 W/m2 for 1 h/d over 5 weeks (Fig. 1A, B)."
"Given that RFR may produce a thermal effect on mice [23], we measured rectal temperature before and after RFR exposure. The results showed that no significant change was found in rectal temperature between two groups (Fig. S1A)."
"Mice were exposed under the specific conditions with a frequency of 4.9 GHz and an average power density of 50 W/m2 for 35 d (1 h/d). The Pulse wave has a duty cycle of 50%. Specific absorption rate (SAR) calculations were performed employing Sim4life (version 8.0, ZMT, Zurich, Switzerland) electromagnetic simulation software integrated with the Diggy mouse model. The whole-body averaged SAR (WBASAR) and brain-averaged SAR values were determined to be 5.2 W/kg and 10.42 W/kg, respectively."
Glossary
NLRP3: An inflammasome protein complex involved in inflammatory signaling and pyroptosis, a form of inflammatory cell death.
Gut microbiota-tryptophan-serotonin axis drives anxiety-like behavior via NLRP3-mediated neuronal pyroptosis in the medial prefrontal cortex
Zhou et al. (2026) Apoptosis Journal Level 1ⓘ
