Quality Diagnostic Pathology Supporting Medical Research

27 February 2020

Does long-term exposure to mobile phones decrease amyloid deposition in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease?

SA Pathology, in collaboration with the University of Adelaide, is a key partner in The Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research (ACEBR), a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence.

For many years mobile phone research has investigated the effect on the brain, particularly as mobile phones are held close to the head, exposing the brain to relatively high specific absorption rates compared to the rest of the body. SA Pathology has contributed to this research, seeking to determine whether exposure to mobile radiofrequency fields produces any adverse effect on the brain. Our research has concluded that if there were any minor deleterious effects on the brain, they were likely to be mild and transient.

Recent studies in the United States and South Korea however have found that long-term exposure to mobile phone-type radiofrequency fields reduces amyloid deposition in the brains of transgenic Alzheimer’s disease mice. Amyloid plaques and neuronal neurofibrillary tangles are the two major pathological hallmarks of this common form of dementia. SA Pathology acknowledges the importance of these studies and the potential implications for Alzheimer’s prevention. As such, SA Pathology and University of Adelaide research team are currently conducting replica experiments in an attempt to verify the novel research findings.

Neuropathology at SA Pathology

Neuropathological diagnoses in South Australia are conducted at SA Pathology, in large part due to the establishment of the Hanson Institute Centre for Neurological Diseases in 2004, under the direction of Professor Peter Blumbergs, as the focus for the diagnosis of, and research into, neurological disorders in this State. Professor Blumbergs’ longstanding experience in diagnostic and investigative aspects of a wide range of neurological diseases (he is, for example, a recognised authority on traumatic brain injury) is reflected in the fact that the pathologists currently performing neuropathological diagnoses, and evaluating muscle and nerve biopsies, were trained by Peter and many of the postgraduate students supervised by him are now research leaders in this field.

Other examples of SA Pathology research in this field can be seen by clicking on the links below.

Elsevier Research Report

Spine Basic Science