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Quantifying nanoplastic cellular interactions and uptake pathways by label-free plasmonic imaging
Summary
Scientists used a special microscope technique to watch, in real time, exactly how tiny plastic particles (nanoplastics) get into human cells — finding that the vast majority (over 85%) are actively pulled inside by the cell itself, rather than just passively slipping in or sticking to the surface. This matters because understanding *how* nanoplastics enter our cells is a critical first step toward figuring out whether — and how — they might cause harm, especially as these particles are increasingly found in our food, water, and even bodies.
Nanoplastics are increasingly detected in environmental and biological systems, yet quantitative understanding of their cellular interactions and uptake pathways remains limited, particularly under label-free conditions. Here, we employ surface plasmon resonance microscopy (SPRM) to investigate nanoplastic-cell interactions in real time with single-cell resolution. Using 200 nm polystyrene nanoparticles and HEK293 cells as a model system, we quantify the relative contributions of nanoplastic association with cells, including surface adsorption (8.47%), passive uptake (5.95%), and active internalization (85.58%), the latter further comprising clathrin-mediated (44.35%), caveolae-mediated (46.26%), and macropinocytosis-mediated pathways (9.39%). This study establishes SPRM as a label-free platform for quantitatively analyzing nanoplastic-cell interactions and provides a foundation for extending such analyses to more complex and environmentally relevant nanoparticle systems. SYNOPSIS: A label-free surface plasmon resonance microscopy approach quantitatively dissects nanoplastic-cell interaction pathways at the single-cell level.