Zhou Zhendong, Zhao Xianfu, Liang Le, Su Min, Sun Weigang, Shen Jianxiang, Jiang Zhongguan
School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China.
Key Laboratory of Ecological Impacts of Hydraulic Projects and Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystem of Ministry of Water Resources, Institute of Hydroecology, Ministry of Water Resources & Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2025 Sep 15;303:119053. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2025.119053.
Acting as emerging pollutants in freshwater ecosystems, microplastics and plasticizers may have toxicological and histopathological effects on aquatic organisms. However, the combined toxicity of microplastics and plasticizers as well as the toxicological differences among various microplastic shapes have been limitedly studied. To address these gaps, we conducted laboratory experiments using zebrafish (Danio rerio, Hamilton 1822) to assess oxidative stress levels, lipid peroxidation, and pathological damage under both sole and combined exposure to microplastic fibers (MFs), microbeads (MBs), and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). Generally, our results demonstrated significantly toxicological response of fish livers and intestines to the sole and combined exposure to microplastics (MFs and MBs) and DBP. Specifically, in fish livers, MFs accounted for the highest increase in CAT and GST activity, with more severe swollen hepatocytes and vacuolization occurred. Similarly, we also recorded higher SOD activity and MDA content with the exposure to MFs in zebrafish intestines. In addition, the exposure to MFs incurred more severe changes in goblet cell reduction and hypervacuolisation in fish intestines. In summary, MFs exhibited more severe oxidative stress and pathological damage than MBs, which highlighted the importance of prioritizing MFs in environmental monitoring and examining the toxicity of MFs on laboratory studies.
作为淡水生态系统中的新兴污染物，微塑料和增塑剂可能对水生生物产生毒理学和组织病理学影响。然而，微塑料和增塑剂的联合毒性以及各种微塑料形状之间的毒理学差异研究有限。为了填补这些空白，我们使用斑马鱼（Danio rerio，汉密尔顿1822）进行了实验室实验，以评估在单独和联合暴露于微塑料纤维（MFs）、微珠（MBs）和邻苯二甲酸二丁酯（DBP）的情况下的氧化应激水平、脂质过氧化和病理损伤。总体而言，我们的结果表明，鱼类肝脏和肠道对单独和联合暴露于微塑料（MFs和MBs）及DBP有显著的毒理学反应。具体而言，在鱼类肝脏中，MFs导致CAT和GST活性增加最多，肝细胞肿胀和空泡化更严重。同样，我们还记录到斑马鱼肠道中暴露于MFs时SOD活性和MDA含量更高。此外，暴露于MFs会使鱼类肠道中的杯状细胞减少和空泡化加剧。总之，MFs比MBs表现出更严重的氧化应激和病理损伤，这突出了在环境监测中优先考虑MFs以及在实验室研究中检验MFs毒性的重要性。
