State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China.
Key Laboratory of Luminescence Analysis and Molecular Sensing, Ministry of Education, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University, 2 Tiansheng Rd, Beibei District, Chongqing, 400715, China.
Nat Commun. 2022 Aug 13;13(1):4757. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32532-5.
The global-scale production of plastics has been instrumental in advancing modern society, while the rising accumulation of plastics in landfills, oceans, and anything in between has become a major stressor on environmental sustainability, climate, and, potentially, human health. While mechanical and chemical forces of man and nature can eventually break down or recycle plastics, our understanding of the biological fingerprints of plastics, especially of nanoplastics, remains poor. Here we report on a phenomenon associated with the nanoplastic forms of anionic polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate), where their introduction disrupted the vascular endothelial cadherin junctions in a dose-dependent manner, as revealed by confocal fluorescence microscopy, signaling pathways, molecular dynamics simulations, as well as ex vivo and in vivo assays with animal model systems. Collectively, our results implicated nanoplastics-induced vasculature permeability as primarily biophysical-biochemical in nature, uncorrelated with cytotoxic events such as reactive oxygen species production, autophagy, and apoptosis. This uncovered route of paracellular transport has opened up vast avenues for investigating the behaviour and biological effects of nanoplastics, which may offer crucial insights for guiding innovations towards a sustainable plastics industry and environmental remediation.
全球范围内塑料的大规模生产推动了现代社会的进步,而塑料在垃圾填埋场、海洋和两者之间的任何地方的不断积累,已成为环境可持续性、气候以及可能对人类健康的主要压力源。尽管机械和化学力量可以最终分解或回收塑料,但我们对塑料,特别是纳米塑料的生物指纹的理解仍然很差。在这里,我们报告了与阴离子聚苯乙烯和聚(甲基丙烯酸甲酯)的纳米塑料形式相关的现象,通过共聚焦荧光显微镜、信号通路、分子动力学模拟以及使用动物模型系统的体外和体内实验揭示了它们的存在,这些实验表明它们的引入以剂量依赖的方式破坏了血管内皮钙黏蛋白连接。总的来说,我们的结果表明,纳米塑料诱导的血管通透性主要是物理化学性质的,与活性氧物质产生、自噬和细胞凋亡等细胞毒性事件无关。这种细胞旁转运途径的揭示为研究纳米塑料的行为和生物效应开辟了广阔的途径,这可能为指导创新以实现可持续塑料工业和环境修复提供重要的见解。
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