Department of Urology, Wuhan Third Hospital, Medical School of Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430060, China.
Department of Pathology, Shenzhen People's Hospital, the Second Clinical Medical College of Jinan University, Shenzhen 518020, China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2023 May;256:114821. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.114821. Epub 2023 Mar 28.
Microplastics (MPs) may pollute drinking water, accumulate in the food chain, and release toxic chemicals that may cause a variety of diseases. The detrimental effects of MPs on kidney injury and fibrosis under long-term accumulation have not been fully documented. In this study, mice were exposed to MPs with three different diameters (80 nm, 0.5 µm, and 5 µm) to investigate the detrimental influences of MPs on the kidney. The results showed that MPs of different diameters caused varying degrees of injury to the murine kidney. MPs exposure can induce an inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and cell apoptosis in the kidney and induce kidney injury, which ultimately promotes kidney fibrosis. Furthermore, transcriptome data revealed that chronic exposure to MPs could alter the expressions of multiple genes related to immune response (80 nm) and circadian rhythm (0.5 µm, and 5 µm). Overall, our data provide new evidence and potential research for investigating the harm of MPs to kidney of mammals and even humans.
微塑料（MPs）可能会污染饮用水，在食物链中积累，并释放出有毒化学物质，从而导致多种疾病。 MPs 对长期积累下的肾损伤和纤维化的有害影响尚未得到充分记录。 在这项研究中，将三种不同直径（80nm、0.5μm 和 5μm）的 MPs 暴露于小鼠中，以研究 MPs 对肾脏的有害影响。 结果表明，不同直径的 MPs 对小鼠肾脏造成了不同程度的损伤。 MPs 暴露会在肾脏中引起炎症反应、氧化应激和细胞凋亡，并诱导肾脏损伤，最终促进肾脏纤维化。 此外，转录组数据显示，慢性暴露于 MPs 会改变与免疫反应（80nm）和昼夜节律（0.5μm 和 5μm）相关的多个基因的表达。 总的来说，我们的数据为研究 MPs 对哺乳动物甚至人类肾脏的危害提供了新的证据和潜在的研究方向。
