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Lactate exacerbates lung damage induced by nano-microplastics through the gut microbiota–HIF1a/PTBP1 pathway
Summary
A new study found that tiny plastic particles (nano-microplastics) can disrupt the gut bacteria in mice, causing a buildup of lactate (a natural body chemical) that then travels through a specific biological pathway to worsen lung damage. This suggests that swallowing microplastics, now common in food, water, and even the air we breathe, might harm your lungs indirectly by first messing with your gut health, highlighting yet another reason to be concerned about everyday plastic exposure.
We read and had great interest in the article written by Xuan et al. 1 . This study revealed that mice exhibited lung and intestinal mucosal damage, gut microbiota dysbiosis, and elevated lactate and N-cadherin levels after 28 days of exposure to nano-microplastics. In addition, lactate accumulation was strongly associated with an imbalance in lactic acid bacteria in the gut. Furthermore, no lactate accumulation was observed in germ-free mice, while depletion of the gut microbiota using a cocktail of antibiotics produced similar results. Mechanistically, elevated lactate level trigger activation of the HIF1a/PTBP1 pathway, which exacerbates nano-microplastic-induced lung damage through modulation of the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). However, we would like to discuss this topic further.