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Transcriptomic Insights into Micro- and Nanoplastic Toxicity in Zebrafish: A Narrative Review
Summary
This review pulls together existing research on how tiny plastic particles (micro- and nanoplastics) affect zebrafish, a small fish whose genes are surprisingly similar to ours and is commonly used to study health effects. The studies show these plastic particles can damage the brain, liver, gut, and reproductive organs by triggering harmful changes in gene activity, cell stress, and inflammation. Since zebrafish are often used as an early warning system for human health risks, this research suggests plastic pollution exposure — something we all experience through food, water, and air — deserves serious attention as a potential health concern.
Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are emerging global pollutants that pose a significant threat to living organisms due to their widespread presence, ingestion by aquatic species, and ability to cross biological barriers, including the blood–brain barrier. Zebrafish is a well-established and convenient model for ecotoxicological research because of its small size, optical transparency, fully sequenced genome, high genetic homology to humans, ease of breeding, and short life cycle. Exposure to MNPs affects multiple organ systems in zebrafish, including the brain, eyes, liver, intestine, gills, and reproductive system. These particles can induce oxidative stress, inflammation, and interference with diverse biomolecules, leading to adverse biological effects. An analysis of transcriptomic alterations induced by MNPs exposure can contribute to understanding the mechanisms of these adverse effects. In this narrative review, we classify existing studies on MNPs exposure in zebrafish by affected organ system and summarize the gene expression-based evidence of MNP-induced toxicity with a particular focus on high-throughput approaches such as RNA sequencing and single-cell RNA sequencing.