Department of Urology, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, 100034, China; The Institution of Urology, Peking University, Beijing, 100034, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Urogenital Diseases (Male) Molecular Diagnosis and Treatment Center, Beijing, 100034, China; National Urological Cancer Center, Beijing, 100034, China.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, 100034, China.
EBioMedicine. 2024 Oct;108:105360. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105360. Epub 2024 Sep 27.
While microplastics are widely found in various human organs and tissues, the relationship between microplastics and human health, especially prostate health, remains unclear. This study aims to identify and quantify the properties, types, and abundance of microplastics in paired para-tumor and tumor tissues of human prostate. Additionally, the potential correlation between microplastics abundance and prostate cancer are investigated.
Paired para-tumor and tumor samples of the prostate were collected from 22 patients who underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. A combination of laser direct infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was utilized to analyse the properties, type and abundance of microplastics. Correlations between microplastics abundance, demographic characteristics and clinical features of patients were also examined.
Laser direct infrared analysis revealed the presence of microplastics, including polyamide, polyethylene terephthalate, and polyvinyl chloride, in both para-tumor and tumor tissues of human prostate. However, polystyrene was exclusively detected in tumor tissues. The particle size distribution in the prostate tissue mainly ranged from 20 to 100 μm. Approximately 31.58% of para-tumor samples exhibited sizes between 20 and 30 μm, while 35.21% of tumor samples displayed sizes between 50 and 100 μm. The shapes of these microplastics varied considerably with irregular forms being predominant. Additionally, microplastics were detected by pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in 20 paired prostate tissues. The mean abundance of microplastics was found to be 181.0 μg/g and 290.3 μg/g in para-tumor and tumor of human prostate samples, respectively. Among the 11 target types microplastics polymers, only polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride were detected. Notably, polystyrene, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride, except for polypropylene, demonstrated significantly higher abundance in tumor tissues compared to their respective paired para-tumor. Furthermore, a positive correlation was observed between polystyrene abundance in the tumor samples of human prostate and frequency of take-out food consumption.
This research provides both qualitative and quantitative evidence of the microplastics presence as well as their properties, types, and abundance in paired para-tumor and tumor samples of human prostate. Correlations between microplastics abundance, demographics, and clinical characteristics of patients need to be further validated in future studies with a larger sample size.
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFC2702600) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 82071698, No. 82101676, and No. 82271630).
虽然微塑料广泛存在于人体的各种器官和组织中，但微塑料与人类健康，特别是前列腺健康之间的关系尚不清楚。本研究旨在鉴定和量化人前列腺癌旁和肿瘤组织中微塑料的特性、类型和丰度。此外，还研究了微塑料丰度与前列腺癌之间的潜在相关性。
从 22 名接受机器人辅助根治性前列腺切除术的患者中收集配对的前列腺癌旁和肿瘤样本。采用激光直接红外光谱、扫描电子显微镜和热解气相色谱-质谱联用技术分析微塑料的特性、类型和丰度。还检查了微塑料丰度与患者人口统计学特征和临床特征之间的相关性。
激光直接红外分析显示，人前列腺癌旁和肿瘤组织中存在微塑料，包括聚酰胺、聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯和聚氯乙烯。然而，仅在肿瘤组织中检测到聚苯乙烯。前列腺组织中的颗粒尺寸分布主要在 20 到 100μm 之间。约 31.58%的癌旁样本的大小在 20 到 30μm 之间，而 35.21%的肿瘤样本的大小在 50 到 100μm 之间。这些微塑料的形状差异很大，主要是不规则形状。此外，通过热解气相色谱-质谱联用技术在 20 对前列腺组织中检测到微塑料。发现人前列腺癌旁和肿瘤组织中微塑料的平均丰度分别为 181.0μg/g 和 290.3μg/g。在 11 种目标类型的微塑料聚合物中，仅检测到聚苯乙烯、聚丙烯、聚乙烯和聚氯乙烯。值得注意的是，与各自配对的癌旁组织相比，肿瘤组织中聚苯乙烯、聚乙烯和聚氯乙烯（除聚丙烯外）的丰度明显更高。此外，人前列腺肿瘤组织中聚苯乙烯的丰度与外卖食品的食用频率呈正相关。
本研究提供了人前列腺癌旁和肿瘤组织中微塑料存在的定性和定量证据，以及它们的特性、类型和丰度。需要进一步验证微塑料丰度与患者人口统计学、临床特征之间的相关性，需要更大的样本量进行进一步研究。
本工作得到了国家重点研发计划（2022YFC2702600）和国家自然科学基金（No. 82071698、No. 82101676 和 No. 82271630）的支持。
