Microplastics exposure as an emerging threat to ancient lineage: A contaminant of concern for abnormal bending of amphioxus via neurotoxicity

Microplastic-contaminated antibiotics as an emerging threat to mammalian liver: enhanced oxidative and inflammatory damages

“…SOD can convert superoxide into hydrogen peroxide and oxygen, while GSH directly removes ROS via being oxidized to GSSG. 51,52 As a gene associated with cell death, p38 is overexpressed due to the increase in ROS level. 53 We observed an increase in p38 expression upon exposure to either microplastics or SMZ, compared with that in the control group; A SMZ dose-dependence of p38 expression was also deduced (Fig.…”

“…Scientific evidence has uncovered that the plastic debris of various compositions, including polystyrene, polypropylene, and polyethylene, 3,4 exist ubiquitously in diverse environmental matrices, exerting negative impacts on wild organisms, including plants, 5 microalgae, 6 molluscs, 7 fishes, 8 and other food organisms. 9 Recent findings further suggest the occurrence of microplastic contamination in most human foods and drinks, 10 and an average microplastic intake rate in humans of 883 items per capita per day (up to 0.71 g per capita per day in another report). 11,12 Warnings have further advised that people enjoying take-out foods may suffer from exposure to microplastics at a level of up to 3.8 mg mL −1 , owing to the routine use of plastic containers.…”

Amphioxus as a model to study the evolution of development in chordates

“…Moreover, much of the ingested material exits the anus undigested after 1–2 hours and most of the gut contents consist of detritus, suggesting that amphioxus are indiscriminate suspension feeders ( Gosselck et al, 1978 ). A clear example of this indiscriminate filtering behaviour is the fact that several recent studies show how different species of amphioxus are capable of filtering microplastics present in the environment ( Cheng et al, 2023 ; Xiang et al, 2022 ).…”