Contino Martina, Ferruggia Greta, Indelicato Stefania, Pecoraro Roberta, Scalisi Elena Maria, Salvaggio Antonio, Brundo Maria Violetta
Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, Via Androne 81, 95124 Catania, Italy.
Zooprophylactic Institute of Sicily "A. Mirri", Via Gino Marinuzzi, 3, 90129 Palermo, Italy.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Oct 9;13(19):3152. doi: 10.3390/ani13193152.
Currents, wave motion, solar radiation, and abrasion are mechanisms responsible for the degradation of large plastic artifacts and contribute to the dispersion of micro and nanoplastics into aquatic ecosystems, which are, currently, the most dangerous threats due to their invisibility and persistence. The present work evaluated the possible lethal and sublethal effects of amino-modified polystyrene nanoplastics (nPS-NH) with diameters of 50 nm and 100 nm on , an organism at the base of the trophic chain of the aquatic system, using a widely used model for the analysis of embryotoxicity from environmental pollutants. For this purpose, after evaluating the biodistribution of nanoplastics in the body of the tested animals, several endpoints such as anomalies, apoptosis, and ROS production were assessed. In addition, particular attention was dedicated to evaluating the correlation between toxicity and the particle size tested. The results reported that, despite the absence of a lethal impact, several sublethal effects involving gut and body size malformations, as well as the enhancement of apoptosis and oxidative stress in relation to an increase in tested concentration and a decrease in nanoparticle size.
水流、波动、太阳辐射和磨损是导致大型塑料物品降解的机制，并促使微塑料和纳米塑料扩散到水生生态系统中，由于它们的不可见性和持久性，目前这些是最危险的威胁。本研究使用一种广泛用于分析环境污染物胚胎毒性的模型，评估了直径为50纳米和100纳米的氨基改性聚苯乙烯纳米塑料（nPS-NH）对水生系统营养链底层生物的可能致死和亚致死效应。为此，在评估纳米塑料在受试动物体内的生物分布后，评估了几个终点指标，如异常、凋亡和活性氧生成。此外，还特别关注评估毒性与受试粒径之间的相关性。结果表明，尽管没有致死影响，但随着测试浓度的增加和纳米颗粒尺寸的减小，出现了一些亚致死效应，包括肠道和体型畸形，以及凋亡和氧化应激的增强。
