Faculty of Life Science and Technology, National Engineering Laboratory for Applied Forest Ecological Technology in Southern China, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.
Department of Oncology, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha 410008, China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2022 Nov;246:114194. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.114194. Epub 2022 Oct 14.
The potential toxicity of microplastic (MPs) to organisms has attracted extensive attention. However, due to the subacute toxicity of MPs, the biological effect is hard to verify in short-term exposure experiment. Here, by tracking the dynamics of gut microbes, mice model was utilized to evaluate the toxicity of compositional MPs (PE, PET, PP, PS and PVC). After 7 days digestive exposure, the physiological indicators were normal as the control group that the body weight and serum cholesterol levels were insignificant change. Whereas, through histopathological examination, all the treatment groups suffered colon tissue damage, among which PS had the most inflammatory cells. Moreover, the high-throughput sequencing results revealed great variation of intestinal flora in treated mice. The ratio of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes in PE, PET and PP treatment groups heighten, and the relative abundance of Ruminococcaceae and Lachnospiraceae increased significantly at family levels. At the genus level, Alistipes bacteria in PS treatment group significantly decreased that is associated with obesity risk. It indicated that MPs induced inflammatory response would further interfere the dynamics of intestinal flora causing health effect in living organisms. This work shed light on MPs toxicity in short-term exposure and supplied research paradigm of MPs health risk assessment.
微塑料（MPs）对生物体的潜在毒性引起了广泛关注。然而，由于 MPs 的亚急性毒性，短期暴露实验中的生物效应难以验证。在这里，通过跟踪肠道微生物的动态，利用小鼠模型来评估组成性 MPs（PE、PET、PP、PS 和 PVC）的毒性。经过 7 天的消化暴露，生理指标与对照组正常，体重和血清胆固醇水平没有明显变化。然而，通过组织病理学检查，所有处理组的结肠组织都受到了损伤，其中 PS 组的炎症细胞最多。此外，高通量测序结果显示，处理组小鼠的肠道菌群发生了巨大变化。在 PE、PET 和 PP 处理组中，拟杆菌门和厚壁菌门的比例升高，而科水平上的瘤胃球菌科和lachnospiraceae 的相对丰度显著增加。在属水平上，PS 处理组的 Alistipes 细菌显著减少，这与肥胖风险有关。这表明 MPs 诱导的炎症反应会进一步干扰肠道菌群的动态，从而对生物体的健康产生影响。这项工作阐明了 MPs 在短期暴露下的毒性，并为 MPs 健康风险评估提供了研究范例。
