Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Murcia, Regional Campus of International Excellence "Campus Mare Nostrum", E-30071, Murcia, Spain.
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Murcia, Regional Campus of International Excellence "Campus Mare Nostrum", E-30071, Murcia, Spain.
Anal Chim Acta. 2025 Jan 2;1333:343412. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2024.343412. Epub 2024 Nov 8.
The excessive increase in the production of plastics worldwide and their mismanagement have turned these materials into a threat to the environment and living organisms. Plastics undergo erosion and degradation processes releasing additives, monomers of their formulation, and even generating one of the most worrying emerging pollutants: microplastics. These contaminants have been found in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, so it is clear the need to develop a methodology to determine the accumulation of these pollutants and their associated compounds in living organisms.
This work presents a new combination of static headspace with gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (SHS-GC-MS) for the determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with microplastic materials in animal tissue samples. A total of 48 samples were analysed, corresponding to different organs (brain, heart, fat, liver, muscle, lung, kidney) of lamb, pig, rabbit, turkey, chicken, and beef, and 60 VOCs related to the presence of plastics were tentatively identified. Moreover, the identity of 25 VOCs was confirmed and they were also quantified, with contents in the 1.12-920 ng g range. The application of chemometric tools allowed to evaluate the relationship between the type of animal organ and the presence of contaminants associated with microplastics, showing a tendency towards a greater accumulation in kidney and liver. Verification of the origin of the VOCs found was carried out by means of a thermogravimetric analysis - mass spectrometry study.
The developed analytical approach generates useful and valuable information to better understand the exposure pathways of microplastics and their associated compounds, as well as the related migration and accumulation processes may happen in animal organs. This methodology has demonstrated high sensitivity, precision, robustness, and automation, as well as minimal sample handling.
全球塑料产量的过度增长及其管理不善，使这些材料对环境和生物构成了威胁。塑料会经历侵蚀和降解过程，释放添加剂、其配方的单体，甚至产生最令人担忧的新兴污染物之一：微塑料。这些污染物在水生和陆地生态系统中都有发现，因此显然需要开发一种方法来确定这些污染物及其相关化合物在生物体内的积累。
本工作提出了一种新的静态顶空与气相色谱-质谱联用（SHS-GC-MS）相结合的方法，用于测定动物组织样品中与微塑料材料相关的挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）。共分析了 48 个样本，分别来自绵羊、猪、兔、火鸡、鸡和牛肉的不同器官（脑、心、脂肪、肝、肌肉、肺、肾），并初步鉴定了 60 种与塑料存在有关的 VOCs。此外，还确认并定量了 25 种 VOCs，其含量范围为 1.12-920ng/g。应用化学计量学工具可以评估动物器官类型与与微塑料相关的污染物存在之间的关系，表明在肾脏和肝脏中有更大的积累倾向。通过热重分析-质谱联用研究来验证所发现的 VOCs 的来源。
所开发的分析方法提供了有用且有价值的信息，有助于更好地了解微塑料及其相关化合物的暴露途径，以及相关的迁移和积累过程可能在动物器官中发生。该方法具有高灵敏度、精密度、稳健性和自动化程度，以及最小的样品处理。
