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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to The gut microbiota: A key player in cadmium toxicity - implications for disease, interventions, and combined toxicant exposures
ClearToxic and essential metals: metabolic interactions with the gut microbiota and health implications
This review summarizes how toxic heavy metals like lead, mercury, and cadmium interact with gut bacteria in ways that affect both metal absorption and overall health. While not directly about microplastics, the findings are relevant because microplastics are known to carry heavy metals into the body, and gut bacteria play a key role in determining how much of those metals are absorbed.
Co-exposure with cadmium elevates the toxicity of microplastics: Trojan horse effect from the perspective of intestinal barrier
When mice were exposed to both microplastics and the toxic metal cadmium together, the health damage to their intestines and liver was significantly worse than exposure to either pollutant alone. The microplastics acted like a "Trojan horse," carrying cadmium past the gut barrier and increasing its accumulation in the body, while also disrupting the gut microbiome.
Behaviour, ecological impacts of microplastics and cadmium on soil systems: A systematic review
This systematic review examines how microplastics and cadmium interact in soil, finding that they can make each other more harmful. Microplastics can carry toxic cadmium further through soil and increase its uptake by plants, which could mean more heavy metal contamination in the food we eat.
Combined exposure to microplastics and cadmium alters gut microbiota composition in preschool children: A cross-sectional study
A cross-sectional study of preschool children found that combined exposure to microplastics and cadmium was associated with altered gut microbiota composition. The findings suggest that dietary co-exposure to these two contaminants has joint effects on early-life gut health beyond what either pollutant causes alone.
Interactions between environmental pollutants and gut microbiota: A review connecting the conventional heavy metals and the emerging microplastics
This review examines how environmental pollutants, including both heavy metals and microplastics, interact with gut bacteria in humans and animals. The authors found that these pollutants can disrupt the balance of gut microbiota, which may contribute to various health problems, and that gut bacteria can also transform pollutants in ways that change their toxicity.
Microplastic co-exposure elevates cadmium accumulation in mouse tissue after rice consumption: Mechanisms and health implications
In a mouse study, eating cadmium-contaminated rice alongside common microplastics led to 17-38% more cadmium accumulating in body tissues than eating the rice alone. The microplastics changed gut bacteria composition, which increased cadmium solubility and transport across the intestinal wall. This is directly relevant to human health because both microplastics and cadmium are common contaminants in rice, and their combined exposure may increase toxic metal absorption.
Unveiling the impacts of microplastics on cadmium transfer in the soil-plant-human system: A review
A meta-analysis found that microplastics significantly increase soil cadmium bioavailability by 6.9% and cadmium accumulation in plant shoots by 9.3%, through both direct surface adsorption and indirect modification of soil pH and dissolved organic carbon. This enhanced cadmium mobility through the soil-plant-human food chain amplifies health risks, as co-ingestion of microplastics and cadmium increases cadmium bioaccessibility and tissue damage.
Microplastics alter cadmium accumulation in different soil-plant systems: Revealing the crucial roles of soil bacteria and metabolism
A study found that microplastics in soil can change how much cadmium, a toxic heavy metal, is absorbed by food crops, with the effects varying depending on soil type and the amount of plastic present. By altering soil chemistry and bacterial communities, microplastics reshape how pollutants move through farmland and into the food we eat.
Microplastics may increase the environmental risks of Cd via promoting Cd uptake by plants: A meta-analysis
This meta-analysis found that microplastics in soil can increase how much cadmium (a toxic heavy metal) plants absorb. This is concerning because it means microplastic pollution could make our food crops more contaminated with heavy metals, adding another health risk on top of the plastics themselves.
Influences of coexisting aged polystyrene microplastics on the ecological and health risks of cadmium in soils: A leachability and oral bioaccessibility based study
This study tested whether the presence of aged microplastics in soil changes how easily the toxic heavy metal cadmium can enter the human body through accidental soil ingestion. The results showed that aged polystyrene microplastics actually reduced cadmium absorption in the stomach phase, though the effect varied by soil type. This suggests that the interaction between microplastics and other pollutants in soil creates a complicated picture for assessing human health risks.
Adsorption mechanism of cadmium on microplastics and their desorption behavior in sediment and gut environments: The roles of water pH, lead ions, natural organic matter and phenanthrene
Researchers compared how cadmium adsorbs onto five different microplastic types and then desorbs in simulated sediment and gut environments, finding that pH, competing ions, natural organic matter, and co-pollutants like phenanthrene all significantly alter how much cadmium is released.
Research on the Mechanisms of Plant Enrichment and Detoxification of Cadmium
This review examines how plants absorb, transport, and accumulate the heavy metal cadmium from contaminated soil, as well as the detoxification mechanisms plants use to cope with cadmium stress. While focused on cadmium rather than microplastics, the research is relevant because microplastics in soil can alter cadmium mobility and uptake by crops, potentially affecting food safety.
Combined effects of polyvinyl chloride or polypropylene microplastics with cadmium on the intestine of zebrafish at environmentally relevant concentrations
Researchers exposed zebrafish to PVC or polypropylene microplastics combined with cadmium, a toxic heavy metal often used in plastic manufacturing. The microplastics increased cadmium buildup in the fish intestines and worsened gut damage, including inflammation and disruption of the intestinal barrier. This is relevant to human health because people can be exposed to similar combinations of microplastics and heavy metals through contaminated seafood.
Microbial diversity and metabolomics analysis of colon contents exposed to cadmium and polystyrene microplastics
Researchers investigated how cadmium alone and combined with polystyrene microplastics affects the colon of mice over 42 days. The study found that combined exposure caused more severe intestinal damage than cadmium alone, with distinct changes in gut microbial diversity and metabolic pathways, including shifts in bile acid metabolism and increased abundance of certain bacterial species.
Microplastics in soils with contrasting texture, organic carbon and mineralogy: changes in cadmium adsorption forms and their mobility in soil columns
This study investigated how high-density polyethylene microplastics alter the behavior of cadmium — a toxic heavy metal — in soils with different textures, organic carbon contents, and mineral compositions. Using soil column experiments, researchers found that microplastics changed how cadmium binds to soil particles and how easily it leaches downward, with effects varying depending on the soil type and microplastic particle size. Since cadmium is a known carcinogen and agricultural soils commonly contain both microplastics and heavy metals, understanding their interactions is critical for food safety.
Impacts of polypropylene microplastics on the distribution of cadmium, enzyme activities, and bacterial community in black soil at the aggregate level
Researchers found that adding polypropylene microplastics to soil contaminated with cadmium (a toxic heavy metal) changed how the metal distributed across different soil particle sizes and shifted bacterial communities. The microplastics increased cadmium availability in some soil fractions, potentially making it easier for plants to absorb this toxic metal. This suggests that microplastic-contaminated farmland may pose greater heavy metal exposure risks for crops and, ultimately, for people who eat them.
Single and combined effects of microplastics and cadmium on the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus
Researchers examined the individual and combined toxic effects of cadmium and microplastics on sea cucumbers. The study found that cadmium was the primary driver of negative effects including reduced growth, digestive enzyme suppression, and disruption of gut microbiota, but the presence of microplastics increased cadmium's toxicity when both pollutants were present at high concentrations.
Microplastic–Cadmium Interaction in Paddy Soils: An Overlooked Risk Exacerbating Cadmium Contamination in Rice and Microbial Dysbiosis
Scientists found that tiny plastic particles in rice paddies make it easier for the toxic metal cadmium to get into rice plants, leading to more contamination in the rice we eat. When microplastics and cadmium are both present in flooded rice fields, rice plants grow less and absorb significantly more of the harmful metal compared to when only cadmium is present. This matters because cadmium can cause serious health problems like kidney damage and cancer, so this research suggests that plastic pollution may be making our rice less safe to eat.
Microplastics and their interactions with microbiota
This review examines how microplastics interact with microbiota (the communities of microorganisms in the environment and in living bodies). Microplastics can carry harmful bacteria and disrupt the natural balance of microbial communities in soil, water, and the human gut. The disruption of gut microbiota by microplastics is particularly concerning because a healthy gut microbiome is essential for immune function, digestion, and overall health.
A critical review on the interactions of microplastics with heavy metals: Mechanism and their combined effect on organisms and humans
This review examines how microplastics interact with heavy metals in the environment and what their combined effects mean for organisms and human health. Microplastics absorb heavy metals from surrounding water and soil, and when ingested, the acidic conditions in the gut can cause those metals to be released inside the body. The combination of microplastics and heavy metals may be more toxic than either pollutant alone, creating a compounded health risk.
Susceptibility of Cd availability in microplastics contaminated paddy soil: Influence of ferric minerals and sulfate reduction
When microplastics and cadmium contaminate paddy soil together — a common situation in agricultural areas — microplastics increase the availability of cadmium to plants, raising the risk of cadmium uptake into food crops like rice. The mechanism involves microplastics releasing dissolved organic matter that disrupts iron mineral cycling and promotes sulfate-reducing bacteria, which in turn mobilize cadmium from soil particles. These findings highlight that microplastic pollution in farmland does not act alone — it can amplify the toxicity of co-occurring heavy metal contaminants.
Influence of cephalexin on cadmium adsorption onto microplastic particles in water: Human health risk evaluation
Researchers studied how the antibiotic cephalexin influences the adsorption of the toxic metal cadmium onto polyethylene microplastics in water. They found that smaller microplastic particles absorbed more cadmium, and that the combined presence of cadmium and microplastics poses health risks, particularly for children exposed through contaminated groundwater. The study provides evidence that microplastics can act as carriers for heavy metals, potentially increasing human exposure to toxic substances.
Effect of Microplastics on the Adsorption and Desorption Properties of Cadmium in Soil
Polyethylene and polypropylene microplastics were found to reduce soil's capacity to adsorb cadmium, a toxic heavy metal, raising concerns that microplastic contamination in farmland soils could increase the mobility and risk of heavy metal pollutants.
Exposure to microplastics cause gut damage, locomotor dysfunction, epigenetic silencing, and aggravate cadmium (Cd) toxicity in Drosophila
Researchers used fruit flies as a model to study the effects of microplastics alone and combined with cadmium, a toxic metal commonly used in plastic production. They found that microplastics caused size-dependent gut damage and enhanced cadmium's harmful effects on movement and gene regulation through epigenetic silencing. The study demonstrates that microplastics can amplify the toxicity of co-occurring environmental contaminants and suggests Drosophila as a useful tool for rapid microplastic toxicity screening.