Surface Pattern Analysis of Microplastics and Their Impact on Human-Derived Cells

Abstract

Plastic is produced, used, and accumulated exponentially. Humans can take it through the food chain, and microplastics can be potentially toxic to humans. In this study, we analyzed the surface patterns of microplastics and their effects on humans using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). The surface analysis of these microplastics will be used as a standardized measurement method for microplastic detection and will be used as an indicator of the impact of environmental pollution caused by microplastics on humans. We have used a statistical method to analyze the shape of the milled microplastics and estimated the local curvature for each plastic type and found that PVC microplastics have a more rugged shape than the ABS microplastics. We also analyzed the toxicity of PVC and ABS microplastics. Larger PVC tended to induce the release of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Smaller ABS induced the release of IL-6 at high concentrations. However, larger ABS tended to induce the release of TNF-α at all concentrations. Thus, we concluded that microplastics can induce immune responses.

Physisorption and Chemisorption Mechanisms Influencing Micro (Nano) Plastics-Organic Chemical Contaminants Interactions: A Review

“…Evidence of the availability and contamination impacts of such chemicals has been highlighted by many researchers. The adverse effects of microplastics on fishes and large aquatic animals, zooplankton, phytoplankton, microalgae, crustaceans, and seabirds have been widely reported (Boerger et al, 2010;Kögel et al, 2019;Ma et al, 2020;Corinaldesi et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2021), at the population levels (e.g., fertility, mortality, growth and organismal development, feeding activity) (Zarfl et al, 2011;Sussarellu et al, 2016;Heindler et al, 2017;Mouchi et al, 2019;Chapron et al, 2020;Liu G. et al, 2020;Issac and Kandasubramanian, 2021), cellular (e.g., motility; cell fragmentation, membrane stability, apoptosis) (Von Moos et al, 2012;Han et al, 2020;Tallec et al, 2020), and molecular levels (e.g., mortality, gene expression, stress defense, and oxidative stress effects) (Balbi et al, 2017;Liu Z et al, 2018;Yu et al, 2018;Sendra et al, 2020;Capolupo et al, 2021). Corals readily ingest polypropylene microplastics upon exposure to plastic particles, resulting in a variety of biological implications ranging from feeding dysfunction to mucus formation and distorted gene expression (Corinaldesi et al, 2021).…”

A Selective Ratiometric Fluorescent Probe for No-Wash Detection of PVC Microplastic

“…Thus, it can be hypothesized that the real percentage of this polymer in the marine environments is probably underestimated, increasing the need for its detection. Moreover, PVC MP pose a very serious threat to the human organism, as they can circulate in the body and their long exposure can cause immunotoxicity to the cells stimulating the release of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) [ 14 , 15 ]. Large concentrations of PVC can affect freshwater photosynthetic systems, e.g., Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Microcystis flos-aquae algae , by inhibiting the photosynthetic ability and growth of the organisms [ 16 ].…”

Impacts of microplastics on immunity

“…When PBMC is exposed to MPs for 4–5 days, the cellular immune response is activated. ABS and PVC induced the production of IL-6 and TNF-α, respectively, while both inhibited the release of histamine ( Han et al, 2020 ). However, TNF-α and IL-2 decreased upon increasing the PVC MPs concentration, indicating that exposure to MPs can cause an immune response in human cells ( Han et al, 2020 ).…”