Traditional Medicine and Hydrotherapy Research Center, 48413Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Pharmacy, 48413Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
Toxicol Ind Health. 2022 Feb;38(2):100-111. doi: 10.1177/07482337211065832. Epub 2022 Feb 27.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) microplastics are emerging contaminants affecting biological wastewater treatment processes. So far, the toxicological investigation of PVC microplastics usually focused on the anaerobic and denitrifying bacteria. It seems that the primary lymphocytes isolated from peripheral blood are more sensitive than most other organ cell types in vitro; therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the cytotoxicity of PVC microplastic on human and fish blood lymphocytes as a useful ex vivo model for accelerated human toxicity studies. Using biochemical analyses, we showed human lymphocytes are more sensitive to toxic effects of PVC microplastic than fish lymphocytes. Our result showed that addition of PVC microplastic at 24, 48, and 96 μ/ml for 3 h to human blood lymphocytes induced cytotoxicity. The PVC microplastic-induced cytotoxicity on human blood lymphocytes was associated with intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, lysosomal membrane injury, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) collapse, depletion of glutathione, and lipid peroxidation. According to our results, PVC microplastic particles induce oxidative stress and organelle damage in human lymphocytes, while these significant alterations in toxicity parameters in PVC microplastic-treated fish lymphocytes were not observed. Finally, our findings suggest that human lymphocytes are more sensitive to PVC microplastic toxicity compared with fish lymphocytes.
聚氯乙烯（PVC）微塑料是新兴的污染物，会影响生物废水处理过程。到目前为止，对 PVC 微塑料的毒理学研究通常集中在厌氧和反硝化细菌上。似乎从外周血中分离出来的原代淋巴细胞比大多数其他器官细胞类型在体外更敏感；因此，本研究的目的是评估 PVC 微塑料对人血和鱼血淋巴细胞的细胞毒性，作为加速人类毒性研究的有用离体模型。使用生化分析，我们表明人淋巴细胞比鱼淋巴细胞对 PVC 微塑料的毒性作用更敏感。我们的结果表明，将 24、48 和 96 μ/ml 的 PVC 微塑料添加到人血淋巴细胞中 3 小时会诱导细胞毒性。PVC 微塑料对人血淋巴细胞的细胞毒性与细胞内活性氧（ROS）形成、溶酶体膜损伤、线粒体膜电位（MMP）崩溃、谷胱甘肽耗竭和脂质过氧化有关。根据我们的结果，PVC 微塑料颗粒在人淋巴细胞中诱导氧化应激和细胞器损伤，而在 PVC 微塑料处理的鱼淋巴细胞中没有观察到这些毒性参数的显著变化。最后，我们的研究结果表明，与鱼淋巴细胞相比，人淋巴细胞对 PVC 微塑料毒性更敏感。
