Isolation and Quantification of Polystyrene Nanoplastics in Tissues by Low Pressure Size Exclusion Chromatography

Ecotoxicity investigations of plastic nanoparticles (NPs) should pay more attention to their ability to pass barriers, accumulate, and initiate toxicity in cells. The purpose of this study was to develop a simple size exclusion chromatography (SEC) methodology to measure plastic NPs in biological tissues. A SEC column was prepared using a high-resolution gel for large macromolecules to separate plastic NPs from the protein/lipid pools in tissues. It was necessary to prepare the samples in high salt and non-ionic detergent (0.5 M NaCl and 0.2% Tween-20) and apply 0.2% Tween-20 containing 14 mM NaCl for the elution buffer to limit proteins adsorption to NPs. This methodology was able to resolve 50 and 100 nm polystyrene NPs from the protein/lipid pools in tissue homogenates. The fluorescent dye neutral red (NR) was also used for transparent NPs. Moreover, a sample fractionation step was also proposed for plastic NPs concentration using a salting-out methodology with saturated NaCl (5 M) and acetonitrile. Polystyrene NPs partition in acetonitrile, which were further analyzed by SEC. This methodology was tested in two case studies with clams collected in a high boat traffic (harbor) area and with caged freshwater mussels downstream of a large urban area. Although the present methodology was developed with polystyrene NPs it should be amenable to other plastic polymers that react with the NR fluorescent probe.