Department of Urology, The Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin Institute of Urology, Tianjin 300211, China; Academy of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
Department of Urology, The Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin Institute of Urology, Tianjin 300211, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Dec 15;904:166913. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166913. Epub 2023 Sep 7.
Nanoplastics can be easily absorbed into the human body through inhalation, ingestion, and skin contact due to their physicochemical property. Despite the numerous studies postulating the potential adverse effects of environmental exposure to nanoplastics on neurodevelopment, the effects of nanoplastics and their regulatory mechanisms have not been specifically elucidated. We focused on the toxic effects of nanoplastics on brain developmental processes by investigating their interactions with brain organoids. Our findings indicated that nanoplastics exposure caused cellular dysfunction and structural disorders. Nanoplastics adversely affected critical cells in brain organoids, resulting in the reduction of neural precursor cells and neuronal cells. The expression of neural cadherin was also inhibited, which might lead to impaired axonal extension and formation of synaptic connections. In addition, transcriptome sequencing was performed to study the effects of different concentrations of nanoplastics on the signaling pathway. The qRT-PCR analysis confirmed that nanoplastics exposure resulted in decreased expression of several genes related to the Wnt signaling pathway, suggesting that nanoplastics may adversely affect embryonic brain growth through the suppression of the expression of these genes. Our research findings shed light on the deleterious effects of nanoplastics on embryonic brain development and have significant implications for the field of environmental toxicology.
由于纳米塑料的物理化学特性，它们很容易通过吸入、摄入和皮肤接触被人体吸收。尽管有大量研究假设环境暴露于纳米塑料对神经发育的潜在不良影响，但纳米塑料的影响及其调节机制尚未得到具体阐明。我们通过研究纳米塑料与脑类器官的相互作用，关注纳米塑料对大脑发育过程的毒性作用。我们的研究结果表明，纳米塑料暴露会导致细胞功能障碍和结构紊乱。纳米塑料对脑类器官中的关键细胞产生不良影响，导致神经前体细胞和神经元细胞减少。神经钙黏蛋白的表达也受到抑制，这可能导致轴突延伸和突触连接形成受损。此外，我们还进行了转录组测序，以研究不同浓度的纳米塑料对信号通路的影响。qRT-PCR 分析证实，纳米塑料暴露导致与 Wnt 信号通路相关的几个基因的表达降低，这表明纳米塑料可能通过抑制这些基因的表达对胚胎大脑生长产生不利影响。我们的研究结果揭示了纳米塑料对胚胎大脑发育的有害影响，对环境毒理学领域具有重要意义。
