We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Cumulative effect of exposure to nanoplastics on the digestive gland of Baikal endemic gastropods
Summary
Scientists exposed freshwater snails to tiny plastic particles (nanoplastics) for nine months and found that even low doses caused progressive damage to their digestive organs, eventually leading to death—no amount was truly "safe" since the harm built up over time. This matters because it suggests that long-term, low-level exposure to nanoplastics—the kind increasingly found in water, food, and the environment—could pose cumulative health risks that only become obvious after months or years, a concern that likely extends to other animals, including humans, who ingest these particles regularly.
The impact of plastic particles on living organisms must be studied to develop monitoring and other environmental protection activities. Baikal endemic gastropods, Benedictia baicalensis, were cultivated for nine months in the presence of fluorescently labeled polystyrene (PS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) nanoparticles with a diameter of 80-150 nm at concentrations of 0.01, 0.1 and 1 mg/L. Light, laser confocal microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy methods were used to characterize the impact of plastics. Comparison of degenerative changes in the digestive diverticula caused by exposure to different concentrations of both types of nanoplastics did not reveal significant differences. On the third day of mollusk cultivation in the presence of nanoplastics in the digestive gland, secretion and vacuolation of digestive cells increased, resulting in the disaggregation of the native structure of the digestive diverticula. The formation of large swelling sites is a common morphological feature of pathological changes in the digestive gland with chronic exposure to both PS and PVC. During mollusk cultivation in the presence of PS at a concentration of 1 mg/L, large swelling sites were observed by the fifth month of the experiment, followed by the death of the animals. Similar degenerative changes occurred in the digestive gland of mollusks nine months after nanoplastic exposure at concentrations of 0.01 and 0.1 mg/L. This indicates a cumulative effect of the toxic action of these xenobiotics, which increases the hazard of their long-term exposure and can disrupt natural processes of digestion and detoxification of foreign chemical substances.