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Toxicity of polystyrene nanoparticles for mouse ovary and cultured human granulosa cells

Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 2022 82 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.
Jin Huang, Liping Zou, Meng Bao, Qiwen Feng, Wei Xia, Changhong Zhu

Summary

Researchers investigated the effects of polystyrene nanoparticles on female reproductive health using both mouse ovaries and human granulosa cell cultures. They found that nanoparticle exposure damaged ovarian tissue, reduced egg quality, and triggered cell death through oxidative stress and inflammation pathways. The study suggests that nanoplastic exposure may pose risks to female fertility, though more research is needed to confirm effects at real-world exposure levels.

Polymers
Body Systems
Models
Study Type In vivo

The issue of global environmental contamination of microplastics has recently been receiving widespread attention. However, the effects of polystyrene nanoparticles (Nano-PS) on the female reproductive system remain unclear. We investigated the toxicity and explored the potential underlying mechanisms of Nano-PS in both mouse ovarian tissue in vivo and human ovarian granulosa cell lines in vitro. In vivo experiments: Mice were fed different concentrations of Nano-PS for 8 weeks. In vitro experiments: COV434 cells were treated with increasing concentrations of Nano-PS. In the present study, ovarian reserve was found to decrease significantly, while oxidative stress and apoptosis levels increased. Nano-PS increased the proportion of metestrum and diestrus periods, and decreased the proportion of estrous period. The implantation rates and the number of pups per litter decreased. In COV434 cells, Nano-PS reduced cell viability and mitochondrial membrane potential, increased the expression of apoptotic and oxidative stress markers and led to subsequent cell cycle arrest. Specifically, Nano-PS exert their toxic effects on mouse ovarian tissue and COV434 cells by inducing oxidative stress. A potential strategy to overcome this could be to activate the nuclear factor-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling pathway to mitigate Nano-PS-induced oxidative stress.

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