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Primary cell cultures from deceased harbor porpoises to study effects of polystyrene nanoplastics on gene expression

Environmental Pollution 2025 2 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 58 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Thijs Bosker Luc J. W. van der Laan, Bernard A. J. Roelen, Bernard A. J. Roelen, Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Lonneke L. IJsseldijk, Thijs Bosker Henk P. Roest, Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Henk P. Roest, Thijs Bosker Ingrid Moráles, Thijs Bosker Ingrid Moráles, Luc J. W. van der Laan, Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Florian Meirer, Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Luc J. W. van der Laan, Thijs Bosker Florian Meirer, Thijs Bosker Florian Meirer, Florian Meirer, Florian Meirer, Lonneke L. IJsseldijk, Florian Meirer, Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Lonneke L. IJsseldijk, Lonneke L. IJsseldijk, Lonneke L. IJsseldijk, Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Florian Meirer, Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Luc J. W. van der Laan, Luc J. W. van der Laan, Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Florian Meirer, Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker Florian Meirer, Thijs Bosker Thijs Bosker

Summary

Researchers cultured cells from deceased harbor porpoises and exposed them to polystyrene nanoplastics of different sizes to study how marine mammals might be affected by plastic pollution. They found that plastic particles, even relatively large ones at 1000 nanometers, entered the cells and triggered changes in gene expression related to signaling, metabolism, and immune function. The study provides early evidence that nanoplastic exposure may affect the health of top marine predators like porpoises and other cetaceans.

Polymers

Study Type In vitro

Micro- and Nanoplastic particles (MNPs) are abundantly present in the environment including in our oceans. Whale species (cetaceans) occupy the top of the food chain and get exposed to MNPs via their diet. Therefor cetaceans are considered sentinel species to investigate health effects of MNPs in mammals. The aim of this study is to understand how these particles affect cellular function of marine mammals. For this harbor porpoise tissues were isolated post mortem and cells were cultured in vitro. Cells were subsequently exposed to fluorescently-labelled polystyrene MNPs of 1000, 200, and 50 nm diameter. After exposure the cells were examined by confocal laser scanning microscopy and RNA sequencing. Plastic particles, even of 1000 nm diameter were observed inside the cells after 24 h of exposure. Gene expression changes were observed after plastic particle exposure in pathways of various biological processes including signaling and metabolism. In conclusion, this study shows that exposure to MNPs induces cellular responses and changes in gene expression in fibroblast-like cells from a sentinel marine mammal. Comparative analyses between human, cetacean and fish show common as well as species-specific gene responses which could be relevant to further study the health impact of MNPs.

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