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Polyethylene microplastics differently induced gut microbiota dysbiosis and hepatic metabolism in male and female adult zebrafish
Summary
Researchers exposed male and female adult zebrafish to polyethylene microplastics and found that females experienced more pronounced gut microbiota disruption and a greater number of differential hepatic metabolites — particularly phospholipids — compared with males, and that females also recovered more slowly after transfer to clean water.
The toxic effects of polyethylene (PE) MPs on different-sex zebrafish and the possibility of recovery in MPs-free water remain unclear. In this study, adult male and female zebrafish were exposed to PE-MPs (1-4 μm) with 0, 10 and 100 μg/L for 21 days. PE-MPs exposure significantly decreased body weight and condition factor in both sexes. The 16S rRNA sequencing results indicated that exposure to MPs markedly altered the gut microbiota composition and reduced alpha diversity. At the phylum level, MPs induced a significant increase in Fusobacteriota and a decrease in Proteobacteria in both males and females. Hepatic physiological parameters and glycolipid metabolism genes were also perturbed after PE-MPs exposure. Furthermore, hepatic untargeted metabolomic analysis identified 61 and 194 differential metabolites in male and female zebrafish, respectively, predominantly belonging to the lipid and lipid-like molecules superclass. Females in the MPs-100 group exhibited a great number of differential phospholipids than males, particularly phosphatidylcholine and lysophosphatidylcholine. After exposure, zebrafish from the control and MPs-100 groups were transferred to MPs-free water for a 7-day recovery. Male zebrafish body weight recovered to levels comparable to those of the control group, whereas female body weight did not. Most phylum-level gut microbiota composition and hepatic physiological parameters returned toward the control group levels. These results suggested that female zebrafish were more sensitive to MPs toxicity than males, possibly due to alterations in phospholipid metabolites. In addition, recovery in MPs-free conditions ameliorated the toxic effects caused by prior MPs exposure and female zebrafish exhibited a slower recovery process than males.