School of Public Health and Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China.
School of Public Health and Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2023 May;256:114906. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.114906. Epub 2023 Apr 14.
With the detection of nano-plastics (NPs) in daily essentials and drinking water, the potential harm of NPs to human health has become the focus of global attention. Studies have shown that long term exposure to NPs can lead to disorders of glucose and lipid metabolism in organisms, while the effects of short term exposure are rarely reported. Moreover, environmental factors cause the aging of NPs, and it is unclear whether this has an effect on their toxicity. In this study, we use 100 nm polystyrene (PS) NPs and ultraviolet (UV) aging PS (aPS) NPs to gavage mice for 7 days at an exposure dose of 50 mg/kg/day. To evaluate the effects of exposure on mice hepatic glucose lipid metabolism, we performed blood biochemical, pathological and metabolomic analyses. The results showed that exposure to PS NPs and aPS NPs increased serum glucose, disrupted serum lipoprotein levels, and up-regulated the expression levels of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/ phosphoprotein kinase B (p-AKT)/Glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) proteins in the glucose metabolism pathway. The expression levels of key proteins sterol regulatory element binding protein-1 (SREBP-1)/peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ)/adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) in the lipid metabolism signaling pathway were significantly increased. These findings suggest that short term exposure to PS NPs and aPS NPs induces glycolipid metabolism disturbance in mice, which may subsequently awaken the mice to self-regulate the serum levels of various lipoproteins and the expression of related key proteins. Compared with PS NPs, the aPS NPs interfered more strongly with glucose metabolism, and the corresponding self-regulation in mice was also more obvious. These findings not only provide a basis for environmental factors to increase the health risk of NPs but also provided a reference for the selection of test substances for further studies on the toxicity of NPs.
随着纳米塑料 (NPs) 在日常用品和饮用水中的检测，NPs 对人类健康的潜在危害已成为全球关注的焦点。研究表明，长期暴露于 NPs 会导致生物体内葡萄糖和脂质代谢紊乱，而短期暴露的影响则很少有报道。此外，环境因素会导致 NPs 老化，目前尚不清楚这是否会影响它们的毒性。在本研究中，我们使用 100nm 聚苯乙烯 (PS) NPs 和紫外线 (UV) 老化 PS (aPS) NPs 以 50mg/kg/天的暴露剂量对小鼠进行灌胃 7 天。为了评估暴露对小鼠肝葡萄糖脂质代谢的影响，我们进行了血液生化、病理和代谢组学分析。结果表明，PS NPs 和 aPS NPs 的暴露增加了血清葡萄糖水平，破坏了血清脂蛋白水平，并上调了葡萄糖代谢途径中磷脂酰肌醇 3-激酶 (PI3K)/蛋白激酶 B (p-AKT)/葡萄糖转运蛋白 4 (GLUT4) 蛋白的表达水平。脂质代谢信号通路中的关键蛋白固醇调节元件结合蛋白-1 (SREBP-1)/过氧化物酶体增殖物激活受体-γ (PPARγ)/脂肪甘油三酯脂肪酶 (ATGL) 的表达水平显著增加。这些发现表明，短期暴露于 PS NPs 和 aPS NPs 会导致小鼠糖脂代谢紊乱，这可能随后唤醒小鼠自身调节各种脂蛋白的血清水平和相关关键蛋白的表达。与 PS NPs 相比，aPS NPs 更强烈地干扰了葡萄糖代谢，小鼠的相应自我调节也更为明显。这些发现不仅为环境因素增加 NPs 的健康风险提供了依据，也为进一步研究 NPs 毒性时选择测试物质提供了参考。
