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Global warming and nanoplastic toxicity; small temperature increases can make gill and liver toxicity more dramatic, which affects fillet quality caused by polystyrene nanoplastics in the adult zebrafish model
Summary
Researchers exposed zebrafish to polystyrene nanoplastics at slightly elevated water temperatures and found that warming made gill and liver damage significantly worse. The combined stress of nanoplastics and higher temperatures caused more severe tissue changes and reduced fillet quality. This study suggests that as global temperatures rise, the harmful effects of nanoplastic pollution on fish and seafood quality could intensify.
Increasing nanoplastics (NPs) pollution may lead to unknown environmental risks when considered together with climate change, which has the potential to become an increasingly important environmental issue in the coming decades. In this context, the present study aimed to evaluate the stressor modelling of polystyrene nanoplastic (PS-NPs) combined with temperature increase in zebrafish. For this purpose, changes in gill, liver and muscle tissues of zebrafish exposed to PS-NPs (25 ppm) and/or different temperatures (28, 29 and 30 °C) for 96 h under static conditions were evaluated. The results obtained emphasize that exposure to PS-NPs stressors under controlled conditions with temperature increase induces DNA damage through stress-induced responses accompanied by degeneration, necrosis and hyperaemia in zebrafish liver and adhesion of lamellae, desquamation and inflammation in lamellar epithelium in gills. Metabolomic analyses also supported changes indicating protein and lipid oxidation, especially PS-NPs-mediated. These findings will contribute to the literature as key data on the effects of PS-NPs presence on protein/lipid oxidation and fillet quality in muscle tissues.