CLINICS 2011;66(7):1237-1245 The therapeutic effect of PEMF on reproduction Kumar S et al. Figure 4 - A diagram showing the output pattern obtained from a 100-Hz sawtooth wave. significance level of 0.05, which reveals that the experimental groups were significantly different from their controls and from one another. RESULTS Melatonin The average concentration of melatonin in the serum of the MW exposure group (78.82¡6.28 pg/ml) was signifi- cantly less (p,0.003) than the average concentration of melatonin in the MW sham group (124¡7.29 pg/ml, Figure 5). In contrast, the concentration of melatonin (108.29¡3.67) in the MW + PEMF group was significantly (p,0.01) decreased. The melatonin level in PEMF exposure group (114¡3.76) was significantly (p,0.05) less than that of the PEMF sham group (123.22¡8.63). Creatine Kinase The critical role for CK in sperm energy transport was examined by measuring the ATP concentrations or ATP/ ADP ratios. The mean value of the CK level was higher (p,0.001) in the sperm from the MW exposure group (0.24¡0.10) than in the sperm from the MW sham group (0.04¡0.03). A significant (p,0.001) decline was also observed in the MW + PEMF group (0.11¡0.02). The PEMF exposure group (0.08¡0.01) showed an insignificant increase (p.0.06) in the CK level compared with the PEMF sham group (0.05¡0.02, Figure 6). Caspase 3 Activity A statistically significant activation of caspase-3 was observed in the MW-induced animals (Figure 7). The sperm caspase activity showed a significant increase (p,0.003) in the MW exposure group (34.62¡1.98) compared with the MW sham group (13.72¡0.81). After exposure to 2.45-GHz radiation, the animals were subjected to PEMF treatment (22.72¡1.74, p,0.001). A significant (p,0.049) decrease was found in the PEMF exposure group (15.62¡1.31) compared with the PEMF sham (13.81¡1.48). Serum testosterone level The serum testosterone level decreased significantly (p,0.002) in the MW exposure group (1.36¡0.54) compared with the MW sham group (5.41¡1.25). PEMF exposure produced a significant recovery effect (p,0.008) on the serum testosterone level in the MW + PEMF exposure group (3.46¡0.74). However, significant (p = 0.05) changes were observed in the PEMF exposure group (4.20¡0.69) com- pared with the PEMF sham group (5.46¡1.21, Figure 8). DISCUSSION The interaction between EMF and biosystems is a wide- ranging phenomenon that is not essentially confined to emission from any particular source. In general, such exposure has already been identified as a stressor whose receptor mechanism at the cellular level is still unknown. Figure 5 - Melatonin production in the various groups (expressed as pg/ml). A representative experiment is presented. 1241