In vivo evaluation of the 94 GHz-chronic exposure effect on Hairless rat skin gene expression [C2]

Millimeter waves are new broadband frequencies that start to be used in several applications such as future wireless communications, medical, and also non-lethal weapons (the 94-GHz band in Active Denial Systems). However, low information are available on their potential effects on human. These frequencies belong to radiofrequency and they have the property to be stopped by the first layer of the skin. Therefore our studies have aimed to evaluate 94 GHz effects on skin cells whole gene expression. Chronic long term 94 GHz MMW exposures were performed on two rat populations constituted by 17 young animals and 14 adult ones. Each group of animals were equally split in Exposed and Sham exposed subgroup. This two independent exposure experiments were conducted during 5 months, with rats exposed 3 h per day, 3 days per week, to an incident power density of 10 mW/cm², which correspond to twice the ICNIRP limit of exposure for professional. At the end of the experiment, skin explant were taken and RNA were extracted. Then, the modification of the whole gene expression were analyzed with gene expression microarray. Without modification of the animal’s temperature, long term chronic 94 GHz-MMW exposure did not significantly modify the rat’s skin gene expression on both young and adult rats.毫米波（Millimeter Waves）是一类新型宽带频谱，目前已逐步应用于未来无线通信、医疗以及非致命武器等多个领域（例如主动拒止系统（Active Denial Systems）中的94 GHz频段）。然而，现有关于其对人体潜在影响的研究资料相对匮乏。此类频谱属于射频（radiofrequency）频段，且可被皮肤表层所阻挡。因此本研究旨在探究94 GHz毫米波对皮肤细胞全基因表达的影响。 本研究针对两组大鼠开展长期慢性94 GHz毫米波暴露实验：两组大鼠分别包含17只幼年个体与14只成年个体，每组均被平均分为暴露组与假暴露亚组。两项独立的暴露实验均持续5个月，大鼠每日暴露3小时、每周暴露3天，入射功率密度为10 mW/cm²，该值为国际非电离辐射防护委员会（ICNIRP）规定的职业暴露限值的两倍。实验结束后，研究人员采集大鼠皮肤外植体并提取RNA，随后通过基因表达微阵列（gene expression microarray）分析全基因表达的变化情况。 在未改变大鼠体温的前提下，长期慢性94 GHz毫米波暴露并未对幼年与成年大鼠的皮肤基因表达产生显著影响。