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Can Plasma Exchange Be Used to Lower the Circulating Burden of Microplastics in Human Patients?
Summary
Researchers found that a blood-filtering procedure called plasma exchange (similar to dialysis) can reduce the amount of microplastics floating in a person's bloodstream—the first time this has been shown to work in real patients. There's an odd twist, though: the plastic tubing used in the procedure itself can shed tiny plastic particles back into the blood, which muddies the results when microplastic levels start out low. Still, this is an early but promising sign that doctors may eventually have a tool to help clear these tiny plastic particles from the body, though much more research is needed before this becomes a real treatment option.
Microplastic particles (MP) from industrial products and degradation of plastic waste are ubiquitous in our environment and convey serious potential risks to human health. There is currently no established method for removing MP from the human body. MP circulate in the blood and have been found in the eluate plasma from double filtration plasmapheresis procedures, suggesting that plasmapheresis could be used to remove MP from the body. We have measured circulating MP in the blood of 114 patients before and after 174 1-plasma-volume therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) procedures using the Spectra Optia Apheresis System and have shown that circulating MP are reduced by TPE. The reduction is obscured at low starting levels of MP because of leaching of MP back into the circulation from the plastic apheresis tubing set. Nonetheless, this is the first demonstration that it is possible to reduce circulating MP in human patients.