Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Research Article

Long-term Electromagnetic Field Treatment Increases Brain Neuronal Activity: Linkage to Cognitive Benefit and Therapeutic Implications for Alzheimer's Disease

Takashi Mori¹ and Gary W. Arendash^2,3*

¹Departments of Biomedical Sciences and Pathology, Saitama Medical Center and Saitama Medical University, Kawagoe, Saitama 350-8550, Japan

²Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA

³The Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Tampa, FL 33620, USA

Corresponding Author:

Gary W. Arendash, Ph.D,
Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620
Tel: (813) 974-8434
Fax: (813) 974-1614
E-mail: arendash@cas.usf.edu

Received date: October 01, 2011; Accepted date: November 09, 2011; Published date: November 11, 2011

Citation: Mori T, Arendash GW (2011) Long-Term Electromagnetic Field Treatment Increases Brain Neuronal Activity: Linkage to Cognitive Benefit and Therapeutic Implications for Alzheimer's Disease. J Alzheimers Dis 1:102. doi: 10.4172/2161-0460.1000102

Copyright: © 2011 Mori T, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Although a single exposure to high frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) appears to increase neuronal activity based on PET/EEG monitoring, the "long-term" effects of daily EMF treatment on neuronal activity have not been evaluated in either humans or animals. In the present study, we report daily EMF treatment over a two-month period to enhance neuronal activity in entorhinal cortex of aged (23 - 28 month old) Alzheimer\'s transgenic mice and littermate normal mice, as indexed by the expression of c-Fos in neurons. Moreover, this enhanced neuronal activity was temporally linked to cognitive benefit in the same animals. In view of the impaired neuronal activity that occurs very early and progressively in Alzheimer\'s Disease, we suggest EMF treatment as a viable approach to counter this neuronal hypo-activity and possibly enhance/stabilize cognitive function.

Keywords