Quantitative evidence of micro-/nanoplastics in placental tissue of healthy Canadians revealed through pyrolysis gas chromatography-cyclic ion mobility mass spectrometry

Microplastics, pregnancy and the placenta: what we know and what we don’t

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Researchers reviewed current evidence on microplastic accumulation in the placenta during pregnancy, examining what is known about how these particles cross or are blocked by placental tissue and what gaps remain regarding potential developmental consequences for the fetus.

Health Risks of Prenatal and Early-Life Microplastics Exposure: A Comprehensive Review

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Researchers reviewed current evidence that microplastics cross the placental barrier and affect fetal development through oxidative stress, inflammation, endocrine disruption, and epigenetic alterations, summarizing experimental findings linking prenatal and early-life exposure to neurodevelopmental, reproductive, and immune abnormalities — often in a sex-dependent manner — while identifying major gaps in human dose-response data.

Quantifying Micro- and Nanoplastics in Blood, Urine, and Soft Tissues Using Optimized Cascaded Microfiltration and Pyrolysis-GC/MS for Exposomic Investigations

An exploration into the transplacental transfer of microplastics through placental transporters

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Researchers used molecular dynamics simulations to model how polystyrene and polyethylene nanoplastics interact with six key placental transport proteins, finding that PE nanoplastics have higher transplacental transfer potential than PS because fewer efflux transporters act to block their passage.

The bioaccumulation and carcinogenic potential of micro- and nanoplastics in humans

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This comprehensive review synthesizes recent evidence showing that micro- and nanoplastics accumulate in multiple human organs and examines the biological pathways by which these particles could potentially promote cancer development. As plastic particles are now confirmed inside human tissues, understanding their carcinogenic potential has become one of the most urgent questions in environmental health research.