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Early-life exposure to five biodegradable plastics impairs eye development and visually-mediated behavior through disturbing hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis in zebrafish larvae
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Zebrafish exposed to five types of biodegradable plastic microplastics during early development showed impaired eye growth, damaged retinas, and disrupted thyroid hormone signaling. Some plastics also caused abnormal visual behavior, suggesting actual vision loss. These findings are important because biodegradable plastics are marketed as safer alternatives, yet they may still harm developing organisms, including potentially affecting human fetal development.
Biodegradable plastics have been commonly developed and applied as an alternative to traditional plastics, which cause environmental plastic pollution. However, biodegradable plastics still present limitations such as stringent degradation conditions and slow degradation rate, and may cause harm to the environment and organisms. Consequently, in this study, zebrafish was used to evaluate the effects of five biodegradable microplastics (MPs), polyglycolic acid (PGA), polylactic acid (PLA), polybutylene succinate (PBS), polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) and polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) exposure on the early development, retina morphology, visually-mediated behavior, and thyroid signaling at concentrations of 1 mg/L and 100 mg/L. The results indicated that all MPs induced decreased survival rate, reduced body length, smaller eyes, and smaller heads, affecting the early development of zebrafish larvae. Moreover, the thickness of retinal layers, including inner plexiform layer (IPL), outer nuclear layer (ONL), and retinal ganglion layer (RGL) was decreased, and the expression of key genes related to eye and retinal development was abnormally altered after all MPs exposure. Exposure to PBS and PBAT led to abnormal visually-mediated behavior, indicating likely affected the visual function. All MPs could also cause thyroid system disorders, among which alterations in the thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) genes could affect the retinal development of zebrafish larvae. In summary, biodegradable MPs exhibited eye developmental toxicity and likely impaired the visual function in zebrafish larvae. This provided new evidence for revealing the effects of biodegradable plastics on aquatic organism development and environmental risks to aquatic ecosystems.
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