Department of Innovative Technologies in Medicine & Dentistry, University "G. d'Annunzio" Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University "G. d'Annunzio" Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 24;19(13):7782. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19137782.
The level of environmental microplastics in the sea is constantly increasing. They can enter the human body with food, be absorbed through the gut and have negative effects on the organism's health after its digestion. To date, microplastics (MPs) are considered new environmental pollutants in the air sea and they are attracting wide attention. The possible toxic effects of MPs isolated at different sea depths of 1, 24 and 78 m were explored in an in vitro model of human gingival fibroblasts (hGFs). MPs isolated from the sea showed different size and were then divided into different sample groups: 1, 24 and 78 m. The results obtained revealed that MPs are able to activate the inflammatory pathway NFkB/MyD88/NLRP3. In detail, the exposure to MPs from 1 and 78 m led to increased levels of inflammatory markers NFkB, MyD88 and NLRP3 in terms of proteins and gene expression. Moreover, cells exposed to MPs showed a lower metabolic activity rate compared to unexposed cells. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate that the inflammation process is stimulated by MPs exposure, providing a new perspective to better understand the intracellular mechanism.
海水中环境微塑料的水平不断上升。它们可以随食物进入人体，通过肠道被吸收，并在消化后对机体健康产生负面影响。迄今为止，微塑料（MPs）被认为是空气、海洋中的新型环境污染物，正引起广泛关注。本研究采用体外人牙龈成纤维细胞（hGFs）模型，探究了从 1m、24m 和 78m 不同海洋深度分离的 MPs 的可能的毒性作用。从海水中分离出的 MPs 具有不同的大小，然后将其分为不同的样品组：1m、24m 和 78m。结果表明， MPs 能够激活炎症通路 NFkB/MyD88/NLRP3。具体而言，暴露于 1m 和 78m 的 MPs 会导致炎症标志物 NFkB、MyD88 和 NLRP3 的蛋白和基因表达水平升高。此外，与未暴露的细胞相比，暴露于 MPs 的细胞的代谢活性降低。总之，这些发现表明，炎症过程是由 MPs 暴露所刺激的，为更好地理解细胞内机制提供了新的视角。
