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Maternal exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics alters fetal brain metabolism in mice

Metabolomics 2023 37 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 60 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Nikita Harvey, Nikita Harvey, Myrna J. Simpson, Grace V. Mercer, Nikita Harvey, Grace V. Mercer, Nikita Harvey, Nikita Harvey, Grace V. Mercer, Grace V. Mercer, Grace V. Mercer, Katherine L. Steeves, Grace V. Mercer, Grace V. Mercer, Grace V. Mercer, John G. Sled, Nikita Harvey, Nikita Harvey, Katherine L. Steeves, John‏ Kingdom, Katherine L. Steeves, Lindsay S. Cahill André J. Simpson, Lindsay S. Cahill C. Schneider, Katherine L. Steeves, Ahmet Baschat, Karl J. Jobst, Katherine L. Steeves, Grace V. Mercer, C. Schneider, Lindsay S. Cahill Katherine L. Steeves, Grace V. Mercer, John G. Sled, Katherine L. Steeves, John G. Sled, Karl J. Jobst, Katherine L. Steeves, Christopher K. Macgowan, Karl J. Jobst, Lindsay S. Cahill Ahmet Baschat, Christopher K. Macgowan, Myrna J. Simpson, Lindsay S. Cahill Christopher K. Macgowan, André J. Simpson, Karl J. Jobst, John‏ Kingdom, Ahmet Baschat, Lindsay S. Cahill Ahmet Baschat, John‏ Kingdom, Lindsay S. Cahill Lindsay S. Cahill Lindsay S. Cahill Myrna J. Simpson, André J. Simpson, Karl J. Jobst, Karl J. Jobst, John‏ Kingdom, André J. Simpson, Ahmet Baschat, Karl J. Jobst, André J. Simpson, John‏ Kingdom, Myrna J. Simpson, Myrna J. Simpson, André J. Simpson, Lindsay S. Cahill Karl J. Jobst, Christopher K. Macgowan, Karl J. Jobst, Karl J. Jobst, Myrna J. Simpson, Myrna J. Simpson, Karl J. Jobst, Christopher K. Macgowan, Lindsay S. Cahill André J. Simpson, John G. Sled, Lindsay S. Cahill John G. Sled, Ahmet Baschat, Karl J. Jobst, Karl J. Jobst, Lindsay S. Cahill Lindsay S. Cahill John‏ Kingdom, John G. Sled, Karl J. Jobst, Lindsay S. Cahill

Summary

When pregnant mice drank water containing polystyrene nanoplastics at low concentrations, their unborn pups showed significant changes in brain chemistry, including a 40% drop in GABA (a key brain chemical) and a 30% drop in glucose levels. These metabolic disruptions in the fetal brain could help explain the structural brain changes previously seen in pups born to nanoplastic-exposed mothers. This study raises concerns that nanoplastic exposure during pregnancy could affect fetal brain development in humans.

Polymers

Body Systems

Nervous Reproductive

Models

Mouse

Study Type Environmental

INTRODUCTION: Plastics used in everyday materials accumulate as waste in the environment and degrade over time. The impacts of the resulting particulate micro- and nanoplastics on human health remain largely unknown. In pregnant mice, we recently demonstrated that exposure to nanoplastics throughout gestation and during lactation resulted in changes in brain structure detected on MRI. One possible explanation for this abnormal postnatal brain development is altered fetal brain metabolism. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of maternal exposure to nanoplastics on fetal brain metabolism. METHODS: Healthy pregnant CD-1 mice were exposed to 50 nm polystyrene nanoplastics at a concentration of 10 ng/L through drinking water during gestation. Fetal brain samples were collected at embryonic day 17.5 (n = 18-21 per group per sex) and snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen. Magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance was used to determine metabolite profiles and their relative concentrations in the fetal brain. RESULTS: The relative concentrations of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), creatine and glucose were found to decrease by 40%, 21% and 30% respectively following maternal nanoplastic exposure when compared to the controls (p < 0.05). The change in relative concentration of asparagine with nanoplastic exposure was dependent on fetal sex (p < 0.005). CONCLUSION: Maternal exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics caused abnormal fetal brain metabolism in mice. The present study demonstrates the potential impacts of nanoplastic exposure during fetal development and motivates further studies to evaluate the risk to human pregnancies.

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