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UV-aged polystyrene nanoplastics aggravate intestinal barrier damage by overproduction of ROS
Summary
Researchers compared the intestinal effects of new versus UV-weathered polystyrene nanoplastics in mice and found that the aged particles caused significantly more damage to the gut lining. The weathered nanoplastics generated higher levels of reactive oxygen species, leading to greater oxidative damage and disruption of the intestinal barrier. The study suggests that nanoplastics that have been exposed to sunlight in the environment may pose greater health risks than freshly produced particles.
UV irradiation significantly alters nanoplastics (NPs) physicochemical properties, thus affecting their biological toxicity. This study is the first to assess the influence of virgin and UV-aged polystyrene NPs (v-PS NPs, a-PS NPs) on the intestinal barrier of ICR mice. We found that a-PS NPs can cause more severe intestinal barrier damage compared with v-PS NPs. The reason may be attributed to that a-PS NPs produced more ROS in intestinal tissue. Moreover, the strong oxidizing property of hydroxyl radicals (·OH) generated from the a-PS NPs can damage cell membranes through lipid peroxidation, thereby leading to a low clearance rate of ·OH due to the impaired intestinal tissue function, in turn, causing more ROS to accumulate and inducing severe oxidative damage. This research underscores the crucial role of ·OH in mediating oxidative damage from UV-aged nanoparticles, emphasizing the need to consider environmental factors in assessing NPs toxicity.