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Luminous Upconverted Nanoparticles as High-Sensitivity Optical Probes for Visualizing Nano- and Microplastics in Caenorhabditis elegans
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Researchers used upconverted NaYF4:Yb3+/Er3+ nanoparticles as high-sensitivity optical probes to visualize the ingestion and biodistribution of polystyrene microplastics and nanoplastics in Caenorhabditis elegans in real time, overcoming autofluorescence limitations of conventional fluorescent probes.
With the increasing prevalence of plastic pollution, understanding its impact on soil nematodes is crucial for environmental sustainability and food security. Traditional fluorescence-based probes have the limitations of high background noise and interference from autofluorescence. In this study, the luminous upconverted NaYF4:Yb3+/Er3+ nanoparticles acted as high-sensitivity probes for real-time visualization of ingestion and biodistribution of polystyrene microplastics (PS-MPs) and nanoplastics (PS-NPs) in Caenorhabditis elegans. The novel probes enabled efficient near-infrared-to-visible light conversion. This approach improved the precision of nano- and microplastic detection in biological tissues. Microscopic imaging revealed that the probes effectively distinguished size-dependent plastic distribution patterns, with microplastics remaining in the digestive tract, whereas nanoparticles penetrated intestinal walls and entered systemic circulation. Quantitative fluorescence analysis confirmed that PS-NPs exhibited higher bioavailability and deeper tissue penetration, providing crucial insights into plastic behavior at the organismal level. The different toxicities of PS-NPs and PS-MPs were further confirmed by measurement of the locomotor impairments and the physiological disruptions. These findings emphasize the broader applications of upconverted nanoparticles as advanced bio-imaging probes, offering a sensitive and non-invasive tool for tracking pollutant interactions in environmental and biological systems.
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Upconverting vs. fluorescent labels for visualizing distribution and uptake of nanoplastics: a Daphnia magna case study
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Scientists studying nanoplastics (tiny plastic particles too small to see) usually track them in living organisms by tagging them with glowing dyes, but these dyes get lost in the body's own natural glow, making it hard to know exactly where the plastic ends up. In this study, researchers created a new type of glowing tag that uses special light-converting particles, and tested it in water fleas (a common lab organism), finding it showed up much more clearly in the gut than traditional dyes, without harming the animals. This matters because better tools to track where nanoplastics travel in living bodies could eventually help scientists understand how these particles move through the
Upconverting vs. fluorescent labels for visualizing distribution and uptake of nanoplastics: a Daphnia magna case study
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Scientists studying how tiny plastic particles (nanoplastics) get absorbed by living creatures have struggled to actually "see" these particles inside body tissue, because normal glow-in-the-dark tracking dyes get lost in the body's natural glow. This study created a new type of glowing tag that only lights up under special infrared light, allowing researchers to clearly track nanoplastics moving through a small water organism's gut for the first time. This matters because better tools to see where nanoplastics travel in living bodies could eventually help scientists understand how these particles might affect human health too, since we're exposed to the same types of plastics through food
Dark-field hyperspectral microscopy for label-free microplastics and nanoplastics detection and identification in vivo: A Caenorhabditis elegans study
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Researchers demonstrated that dark-field hyperspectral microscopy can visualize and chemically identify nano- and microplastics (down to 100 nm) in live C. elegans nematodes without labeling, differentiating multiple polymer types simultaneously within intestinal tissue.
Daphnia magna uptake and excretion of luminescence‐labelled polystyrene nanoparticle as visualized by high sensitivity real-time optical imaging
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Researchers used lanthanide-labeled polystyrene nanoparticles and time-gated imaging to track nanoplastic uptake and excretion in live Daphnia magna in real time, finding that the water flea accumulated roughly 12 nanograms of nanoplastics per individual after 24 hours and that a portion migrated into the circulatory system before being slowly excreted over 48 hours.
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Researchers used gene-edited fluorescent C. elegans to demonstrate that nanoplastic toxicity is size- and charge-dependent, with 100 nm positively charged polystyrene particles causing the greatest harm through intestinal accumulation and oxidative stress.
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