Bishop Brandon, Webber William S, Atif Shaikh M, Ley Ashley, Pankratz Karl A, Kostelecky Rachael, Colgan Sean P, Dinarello Charles A, Zhang Wei, Li Suzhao
Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States.
Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States.
Front Immunol. 2025 Mar 31;16:1528502. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1528502. eCollection 2025.
The presence of micro- and nano-plastics (MNPLs) in the environment has increased significantly in the past decades. However, the direct impact of MNPL particles on human health remains unclear.
In this study, we utilized a modified extraction method with a previously reported staining technique to develop a novel approach for identifying individual plastics in mixtures of MNPLs of commercial and environmental origins to be able to investigate their impacts on human cell inflammation and cell death. Polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were the plastics analyzed. The plastic composition of the environmental MNPLs was characterized using multiple analytical techniques, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, confocal imaging, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction.
We found that both commercial and environmental MNPLs, especially PET, impose a strong inflammatory response on various human cells and tissues. At 1 mg/mL, they robustly stimulate inflammatory IL-1β and IL-6 secretion in a time-dependent manner. Importantly, we observed that the MNPLs induced variable inflammatory responses in cells depending on their plastic composition. Environmental samples rich in PET showed a strong dose-dependent response and induced IL-1β secretion at doses as low as 100 ng/mL. In addition, MNPLs can induce human cell death with or without obviously altering the cell morphology.
These findings are significant because they represent the first instance of authentic MNPLs being collected from ecological water samples for characterization and the first time the direct influences of commercial and environmental MNPLs have been compared in human cell studies. The methods developed in this study provide a foundation for future research to isolate MNPLs from the environment and explore their potential impacts on human health and disease development.
在过去几十年中，环境中微塑料和纳米塑料（MNPLs）的存在显著增加。然而，MNPL颗粒对人类健康的直接影响仍不明确。
在本研究中，我们采用一种改良的提取方法和先前报道的染色技术，开发了一种新方法，用于识别商业来源和环境来源的MNPL混合物中的单个塑料，以便能够研究它们对人类细胞炎症和细胞死亡的影响。分析的塑料包括聚丙烯（PP）、聚乙烯（PE）、聚苯乙烯（PS）和聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯（PET）。使用多种分析技术对环境MNPLs的塑料成分进行了表征，包括傅里叶变换红外光谱、共聚焦成像、扫描电子显微镜和X射线衍射。
我们发现，商业来源和环境来源的MNPLs，尤其是PET，对各种人类细胞和组织都有强烈的炎症反应。在1mg/mL时，它们以时间依赖性方式强烈刺激炎症性白细胞介素-1β（IL-1β）和白细胞介素-6（IL-6）的分泌。重要的是，我们观察到MNPLs根据其塑料成分在细胞中诱导不同的炎症反应。富含PET的环境样品表现出强烈的剂量依赖性反应，在低至100ng/mL的剂量下即可诱导IL-1β分泌。此外，MNPLs可以诱导人类细胞死亡，且细胞形态有无明显改变均可发生。
这些发现意义重大，因为它们代表了首次从生态水样中收集真实的MNPLs进行表征，也是首次在人类细胞研究中比较商业来源和环境来源的MNPLs的直接影响。本研究中开发的方法为未来从环境中分离MNPLs并探索它们对人类健康和疾病发展的潜在影响的研究奠定了基础。
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