Department of Chemistry, Hunter College, City University of New York, 413 East 69th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jun 1;11(1):11463. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-90929-6.
The proliferation of plastics in the environment continues at an alarming rate. Plastic particles have been found to be persistent and ubiquitous pollutants in a variety of environments, including sea water, fresh water, soil, and air. In light of this phenomenon, the scientific and medical communities have become increasingly wary of the dangers posed to human health by chronic exposure to microplastics (< 5 mm diameter) and nanoplastics (< 100 nm diameter). A critical component of the study of the health effects of these pollutants is the accurate determination of their pharmacokinetic behavior in vivo. Herein, we report the first use of molecular imaging to track polystyrene (PS) micro- and nanoplastic particles in mammals. To this end, we have modified PS particles of several sizes-diameters of 20 nm, 220 nm, 1 µm, and 6 µm-with the chelator desferrioxamine (DFO) and radiolabeled these DFO-bearing particles with the positron-emitting radiometal zirconium-89 (Zr; t ~ 3.3 d). Subsequently, positron emission tomography (PET) was used to visualize the biodistribution of these radioplastics in C57BL/6J mice at 6, 12, 24, and 48 h after ingestion. The imaging data reveal that the majority of the radioplastics remain in the gastrointestinal tract and are eliminated through the feces by 48 h post-ingestion, a result reinforced by acute biodistribution studies. Ultimately, this work suggests that nuclear imaging-and PET in particular-can be a sensitive and effective tool in the urgent and rapidly growing effort to study the in vivo behavior and potential toxicity of micro- and nanoplastics.
环境中塑料的扩散仍在以惊人的速度持续。已发现塑料颗粒在各种环境中（包括海水、淡水、土壤和空气）是持久性的、普遍存在的污染物。鉴于这种现象，科学界和医学界越来越警惕人类健康因长期接触微塑料（<5 毫米直径）和纳米塑料（<100 纳米直径）而受到的危害。研究这些污染物对健康影响的一个关键组成部分是准确确定它们在体内的药代动力学行为。在此，我们报告了首次使用分子成像技术来跟踪哺乳动物体内的聚苯乙烯（PS）微塑料和纳米塑料颗粒。为此，我们对几种大小的 PS 颗粒（直径为 20nm、220nm、1μm 和 6μm）进行了修饰，用螯合剂去铁胺（DFO）进行修饰，并将这些带 DFO 的颗粒用正电子发射放射性金属锆-89（Zr；t≈3.3 d）进行放射性标记。随后，正电子发射断层扫描（PET）用于在摄入后 6、12、24 和 48 小时可视化这些放射性塑料在 C57BL/6J 小鼠中的生物分布。成像数据显示，大多数放射性塑料仍留在胃肠道中，并在摄入后 48 小时通过粪便排出，急性生物分布研究结果强化了这一结果。最终，这项工作表明，核成像——特别是 PET——可以成为研究微塑料和纳米塑料体内行为和潜在毒性的一种敏感和有效的工具，这是一项紧迫且快速发展的工作。
