Tissue accumulation of microplastics in mice and biomarker responses suggest widespread health risks of exposure

By Yongfeng Deng, Yan Zhang, B. Lemos, H. Ren. Scientific Reports, 2017

1,299 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Microplastics (MPs) are a significant environmental health issue and increasingly greater source of concern. MPs have been detected in oceans, rivers, sediments, sewages, soil and even table salts. MPs exposure on marine organisms and humans has been documented, but information about the toxicity of MPs in mammal is limited. Here we used fluorescent and pristine polystyrene microplastics (PS-MPs) particles with two diameters (5 μm and 20 μm) to investigate the tissue distribution, accumulation, and tissue-specific health risk of MPs in mice. Results indicated that MPs accumulated in liver, kidney and gut, with a tissue-accumulation kinetics and distribution pattern that was strongly depended on the MPs particle size. In addition, analyses of multiple biochemical biomarkers and metabolomic profiles suggested that MPs exposure induced disturbance of energy and lipid metabolism as well as oxidative stress. Interestingly, blood biomarkers of neurotoxicity were also altered. Our results uncovered the distribution and accumulation of MPs across mice tissues and revealed significant alteration in several biomarkers that indicate potential toxicity from MPs exposure. Collectively, our data provided new evidence for the adverse consequences of MPs.

Subfields: Biomaterials, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8aa69ea3993ca11d40a0903c57cbc5b215aa80bc

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In Biomaterials

1. P. Hollman
2. Jeremy Mendoza-Hill
3. A. Lusher
4. A. Koelmans
5. M. Kooi
6. S. Anbumani
7. P. Kakkar

In Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

1. A. Lusher
2. P. Hollman
3. A. Koelmans
4. Jeremy Mendoza-Hill
5. M. Kooi
6. S. Mintenig
7. S. Anbumani
8. Nur Hazimah Mohamed Nor

In Pollution

1. P. Hollman
2. Jeremy Mendoza-Hill
3. A. Lusher
4. A. Koelmans
5. M. Kooi
6. S. Anbumani
7. P. Kakkar
8. S. Mintenig

Citations in the corpus

• Plasticenta: First evidence of microplastics in human placenta. (2021, background): “Microplastics have also been detected in the gastrointestinal tract of marine animals (Deng et al., 2017; Reineke et al., 2013), and also human intestine (Schwabl et al.”
• Microplastics in freshwaters and drinking water: Critical review and assessment of data quality (2019, background): “If inhaled or ingested, limited data from animal studies suggest that microplastics may accumulate and cause particle toxicity by inducing an immune response (Deng et al., 2017; Gasperi et al., 2018).”
• Ecotoxicological effects of microplastics on biota: a review (2018, background): “Microplastics are of special concern as ‘emerging contaminants’, since their bioaccumulation potential increases with decreasing size indicating the widespread health risk of exposure both in vivo and in vitro (Deng et al. 2017; Schirinzi et al. 2017).”
• Microplastics in fisheries and aquaculture (2017, background): “In mice, daily oral gavage of 5 μm and 20 μm fluorescent polystyrene microplastic particles resulted in accumulation of both types of particles in the liver and kidney (Deng et al., 2017).”