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A new insight of size-dependent plastics particles kinetics with regarding of metabolomics effects in liver and kidney
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Researchers developed a comprehensive extraction and detection protocol to track polystyrene particles of three sizes (80 nm, 2 µm, and 20 µm) across multiple organs in exposed animals, finding that smaller particles accumulated more broadly — reaching the brain, liver, spleen, and kidney — while liver and kidney metabolism was disrupted in size-dependent but distinct ways.
Plastic pollution has received widespread attention. The current techniques for the extraction and detection of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) from biological samples were limited and the biodistribution of MNPs remains unclear. In the study, we aimed to develop a comprehensive extraction protocol with the quartz filter membrane filtration and flocculation precipitation for covering both micro- and nanoscale polystyrene (PS), and to combine the spectral qualification (Raman and Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI)) and Py-GC/QTOF detection for assessing the plastics' size dependent distribution and accumulation in the different organs. Additionally, metabolic profiles in the liver and kidney were explored to screen the particle sizes related effects. Results revealed that 0.08, 2, and 20 μm size PS accumulated in the heart; 0.08 and 2 μm PS were either highly deposited in the liver, spleen, kidney, lung, and brain. Meanwhile, metabolomics showed that 20 μm PS induced more metabolite changes in the liver than the other sizes, but the altered metabolite numbers in the kidney were similar to all sizes. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that there was different pathway alteration between the liver and kidney, and related to PS sizes; serotonin, L-5-hydroxytryptophan, 4-hydroxy-L-glutamic acid, and uric acid are effective markers that undergo significant changes in both the liver and kidneys. The detection protocol provided an effective methodological reference for the accurate qualitative and quantitative analysis of organ-dependent distribution and accumulation of the multi-size PS in biological samples; the metabolomics also provides a valuable reference on the health risk assessments of the multi-size PS.
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