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The porcine corpus luteum as a model for studying the effects of nanoplastics

Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology 2024 3 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Giuseppina Basini, Simone Bertini, Simona Bussolati, Francesca Zappavigna, M Berni, Erika Scaltriti, Roberto Ramoni, Stefano Grolli, Fausto Quintavalla, Francesca Grasselli, Francesca Grasselli

Summary

Researchers used porcine reproductive tissue as a model to study how nanoplastics affect fertility-related cells. They found that nanoplastic exposure increased oxidative stress markers and altered cellular behavior in both luteal and endothelial cells, though the responses differed between cell types. The study suggests that nanoplastics may interfere with reproductive tissue function through oxidative stress pathways.

Nanoplastics (NPs) affect fertility. We evaluated the effects of NPs treatment on luteal and endothelial cells. We examined crucial markers of growth and redox status. NPs treatment did not induce changes in ATP levels in luteal cells, while it increased (p< 0.05) their proliferation. In endothelial cells, no change in proliferation was detected, while an increase (p<0.05) in ATP levels was observed. The increase of reactive oxygen species, superoxide anion (p<0.05) and nitric oxide (p<0.001) was detected in both cell types, which also showed changes in superoxide dismutase enzyme activity as well as an increase of non-enzymatic antioxidant power (p<0.05). A decrease (p<0.05) in progesterone production as well as an increase of vascular endothelial growth factor A levels were detected (p<0.05). In addition, a dose-dependent accumulation of NPs in endothelial cells was shown, that likely occurred through adhesion and internalization. Results underline potential risk of NPs for corpus luteum functionality.

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