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Effects of Pristine and UV-Aged Polystyrene Nanoplastics on Post-Molt Horseshoe Crabs Tachypleus tridentatus: Aging-Mediated Divergence in Biological Effects.
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Scientists found that tiny plastic particles (nanoplastics) affect young horseshoe crabs differently depending on whether the plastic has been broken down by sunlight, surprisingly, "fresh" plastic caused more stress to the crabs' bodies than sun-damaged plastic. This matters because horseshoe crabs are vital to coastal ecosystems and medical testing (their blood is used to check vaccine safety), and it shows that how plastics age in the environment changes their potential harm, a factor scientists need to consider when studying how microplastics might affect other species, including humans, through the food chain.
The Chinese horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentatus), an intertidal chelicerate with a 400-million-year evolutionary history, is increasingly exposed to anthropogenic pollutants in its coastal nursery habitats. Because of the ecological importance of the species and the vulnerability of the post-molt stage, we investigated the effects of pristine and 7-day UV-aged polystyrene nanoplastics (NPS) on juvenile T. tridentatus at an environmentally relevant nominal concentration of 100 μg/L. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed surface oxidation of aged NPS, as reflected by significantly elevated carbonyl (C=O), hydroxyl (O-H), and carbon-oxygen (C-O) indices. Dynamic light scattering in 25 ppt artificial seawater further showed that aged NPS had a larger hydrodynamic diameter (111.90 ± 3.41 vs. 102.27 ± 1.01 nm) and a more negative zeta potential (-10.32 ± 0.86 vs. -5.65 ± 0.66 mV) than pristine NPS. Both NPS treatments elevated MDA levels, whereas most other biomarkers showed no significant changes. Notably, only aged NPS significantly increased total antioxidant capacity, suggesting a compensatory antioxidant response; nevertheless, pristine NPS elicited stronger overall biomarker perturbation, as reflected by its higher cumulative directional probability (85.4% vs. 71.0%) and Integrated Biomarker Response index (pristine: 3.645 ± 0.645; aged: 1.799 ± 0.679; control: 0.889 ± 0.635). Collectively, these findings demonstrate that UV aging alters both the physicochemical properties and the biological effects of polystyrene nanoplastics, with pristine NPS inducing greater biomarker perturbation in post-molt juvenile T. tridentatus.
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