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It's not just synthetic microplastics: Multi-tissue approach reveals a wide range of transcriptional changes in European seabass exposed to viscose-rayon microfibres
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Researchers fed European seabass diets containing viscose-rayon microfibers at various concentrations for 68 days and measured effects on growth and gene expression across multiple tissues. While fish growth was not affected, gene expression analysis revealed widespread transcriptional changes in the liver, intestine, and brain, even at the lowest fiber concentrations. The study demonstrates that semi-synthetic microfibers can cause significant molecular-level disruptions in fish even when outward signs of harm are not apparent.
The impacts of dietary viscose-rayon microfibres (RFs) on European seabass were evaluated on the growth performance and feed efficiency, as well as on gene expression patterns using tissue-specific customised PCR-arrays. Juveniles (5.8 g) were fed diets either without RFs (CTRL) or with increasing RF levels: RF1 (0.001 g/kg), RF2 (0.01 g/kg), RF3 (0.1 g/kg), to visual satiety for 68 days. While growth performance and feed efficiency remained unaffected by RF exposure, the hepatosomatic index (HSI) increased from 1.48 in RF1 and 1.55 in CTRL, to 1.98 in RF3 fish. HSI was related to hepatic transcriptional changes, such as activation of lipogenesis and mitochondrial respiration uncoupling, combined with overexpression of markers of cholesterol metabolism, and triacylglycerol- and fatty acid catabolism. RFs also affected the transcriptional profile of muscle, revealing enhanced regulation of positive and negative modulators of muscle growth. Several pro-inflammatory markers were altered by RF exposure, denoting an opposite regulation of immune response at systemic and local level, that contributed to discriminate CTRL_RF1 from RF2_RF3. The multi-tissue approach identified three distinct transcriptional signatures driven by 43 genes (CTRL_RF1, RF2, RF3). Intestine and muscle made a major contribution to this group separation. The findings indicate that RF exposure induces transcriptional changes but the absence of significant differences in growth performance, whole-body composition, and plasma immune parameters suggests that its physiological impact on fish health was minimal after 68 days of exposure.
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