Effect of mobile phone electromagnetic radiation on somitogenesis of birds

We have assessed the early embryo development of quails after the irradiation of incubation eggs by a standard mobile phone handset. Fresh fertilized quail eggs of exposed groups were irradiated periodically during 2 days before the incubation and in the first day of incubation by commercial mobile phone in the 'receiving a call' position (Motorola W230, GSM 850 MHz, SAR 0.75 W/kg, intensity of RF radiation in the zone of exposure 5-15 μW/cm2, total duration of exposure 20 h). Microscopic analysis of 40-hour embryos revealed that embryos of the exposed groups did not differ significantly from the control in the stage of development according to the quantity of pairs of differentiated somites. But embryos of the exposed groups had more abnormalities of their development as compared with the control. Consolidated data of two experiments revealed a statistically significant (p<0.05) increase of abnormalities in exposed embryos (33.33%) as compared with the control (9.68%). Most malformations in the exposed embryos appeared as the deformations of the first few pairs of differentiated somites. Such a kind of malformations was not found in control embryos.