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Size-dependent toxicity of microplastics induced gut cell apoptosis in brine shrimp Artemia parthenogenetica through p53 signaling pathway
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Researchers exposed brine shrimp to polystyrene microbeads of three sizes and found that smaller particles (0.05 micrometers) caused greater oxidative stress, mitochondrial damage, and gut cell apoptosis via the p53-Bax-Bcl2 signaling pathway, demonstrating that microplastic toxicity in aquatic organisms is size-dependent.
Microplastics (MPs) are one of the most concerning pollutants that affects the health and growth of aquatic organisms. We characterized the MPs dispersion in the milli-Q water and seawater, and evaluated the effects of MPs on the gut epithelial cells of brine shrimp using three sizes of polystyrene (PS) microbeads (0.05, 0.5, and 5 µm, respectively). Results show that microbeads evenly dispersed in milli-Q water, but exhibited aggregation tendency in seawater associating with the particle size. Apart from a reduced survival rate, we observed the structure changes in the gut epithelium that the smaller size of PS microbeads resulted in an increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) and higher apoptosis-related genes expression. Moreover, exposure to all size of PS microbeads led to increased green fluorescence of J-monomer, indicating the declined mitochondrial membrane potential. Therefore, exposure to PS microbeads led to significantly size-dependent toxicity on brine shrimp. Especially, 0.05-µm PS microbeads were more toxic, leading to severe oxidative stress and activation of the p53-Bax-Bcl2 pathway, ultimately resulting in cellular apoptosis and gut damage. These findings are important to understand the mechanism of MPs toxicity and its potential ecological risks to marine aquatic animals.
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