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Effects of excretion of different sizes of orally ingested microplastics in rats

Microplastics and Nanoplastics 2025 Score: 38 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Di Liu, Shinya Kitamura, Atsushi Yasuda, Hongye Zhang, Emiko Fujita, Yutaka Kameda, Muneshige Shimizu

Summary

Researchers developed a method to analyze microplastics in rat feces to evaluate how particle size affects excretion after oral ingestion, incorporating an enzymatic digestion step that achieved recovery rates above 80%. They found that smaller microplastics (30-50 µm) had significantly lower fecal excretion rates compared to larger particles (200 µm), suggesting size-dependent retention or translocation in the gut.

Models

This study established a method to analyze microplastics (MPs) in rat feces to evaluate the effects of MP size on their excretion after oral ingestion. Using this method, a high recovery rate (> 80%) was achieved via the addition of an enzymatic digestion step after treatment with potassium hydroxide. With particle sizes ranging from 30 to 200 μm, the fecal excretion rate of MPs was analyzed. Smaller MPs (30 and 50 μm) had a significantly lower excretion rate compared with that of larger MPs (200 μm).

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