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Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Nov 2023As the concerned emerging pollutants, several lines of evidence have indicated that nanoplastics (NPs) lead to reproductive toxicity. However, the biological mechanism... (Review)
Review
As the concerned emerging pollutants, several lines of evidence have indicated that nanoplastics (NPs) lead to reproductive toxicity. However, the biological mechanism underlying NPs disturbed spermatogenesis remains largely unknown. Therefore, we aimed to reveal the potential mechanism of impaired spermatogenesis caused by long-term NPs exposure from the perspective of integrated metabolome and microbiome analysis. After 12 weeks of gavage of polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs) and animo-modified polystyrene nanoplastics (Amino-NPs), a well-designed two-exposure stages experimental condition. We found that NPs exposure induced apparent abnormal spermatogenesis, which appeared more severe in the Amino-NPs group. Mechanistically, 14 floras associated with glucose and lipid metabolism were significantly altered, as evidenced by 16 S rRNA sequencing. Testicular metabolome revealed that the Top 50 changed metabolites were also enriched in lipid metabolism. Subsequently, the combined gut microbiome and metabolome analysis uncovered the strong correlations between Klebsiella, Blautia, Parabacteroides, and lipid metabolites (e.g., PC, LysoPC and GPCho). We speculate that the dysbiosis of gut microbiota-related disturbed lipid metabolism may be responsible for long-term NPs-induced damaged spermatogenesis, which provides new insights into NPs-induced dysregulated spermatogenesis.
Topics: Male; Humans; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Microplastics; Polystyrenes; Spermatogenesis; Metabolome
PubMed: 37890247
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115626 -
BMC Biotechnology Jan 2022The excessive use of polystyrene as a packaging material has resulted in a rise in environmental pollution. Polystyrene waste has continually increased water pollution,...
BACKGROUND
The excessive use of polystyrene as a packaging material has resulted in a rise in environmental pollution. Polystyrene waste has continually increased water pollution, soil pollution and the closing of landfill sites since it is durable and resistant to biodegradation. Therefore, the challenge in polystyrene disposal has caused researchers to look for urgent innovative and eco-friendly solutions for plastic degradation. The current study focuses on the isolation and identification of bacteria produced by the larvae of beetle Tenebrio molitor (yellow mealworms), that enable them to survive when fed with polystyrene foam as their sole carbon diet.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The biodegradation of polystyrene by Tenebrio molitor was investigated by breeding and rearing the mealworms in the presence and absence of polystyrene. A comparison was made between those fed with a normal diet and those fed on polystyrene. The mealworms which were fed with polystyrene were then dissected and the guts were collected to isolate and identify the bacteria in their guts. The viability and metabolic activity of the isolates were investigated. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by sequencing was used for molecular identification of the isolates. The PCR products were directly sequenced using Sanger's method and the phylogenetic tree and molecular evolutionary analyses were constructed using MEGAX software with the Neighbour Joining algorithm. The evolutionary distances were computed using the Maximum Composite Likelihood method.
RESULTS
The decrease in mass of the polystyrene as feedstock confirmed that the mealworms were depending on polystyrene as their sole carbon diet. The frass egested by mealworms also confirmed the biodegradation of polystyrene as it contained very tiny residues of polystyrene. Three isolates were obtained from the mealworms guts, and all were found to be gram-negative. The sequencing results showed that the isolates were Klebsiella oxytoca ATCC 13182, Klebsiella oxytoca NBRC 102593 and Klebsiella oxytoca JCM 1665.
CONCLUSION
Klebsiella oxytoca ATCC 13182, Klebsiella oxytoca NBRC 102593 and Klebsiella oxytoca JCM 1665 maybe some of the bacteria responsible for polystyrene biodegradation.
Topics: Animals; Bacteria; Carbon; Larva; Phylogeny; Polystyrenes; Tenebrio
PubMed: 34983479
DOI: 10.1186/s12896-021-00733-3 -
Environmental Pollution (Barking, Essex... Nov 2022Microplastic pollution is currently one of the most intensely studied ecological issues. Numerous studies have estimated the distribution and concentration of...
Microplastic pollution is currently one of the most intensely studied ecological issues. Numerous studies have estimated the distribution and concentration of microplastics in various environments and determine how they affect their inhabitants. Much less effort has been place on assessing the possible effects of microplastics on interactions between organisms, including interspecific competition. Our aim was to test the hypothesis that the presence of microplastics affects the proportion of individuals of coexisting species and the elimination rate of the inferior competitor. The hypothesis was tested in competitive experiments done in the absence and presence of spherical non-biodegradable polystyrene and polyethylene and biodegradable polyhydroxybutyrate in environmentally relevant densities. In each of the experiments, we used three different pairs of closely related planktonic species of the genus Daphnia composed of the superior and inferior competitor: D. pulex and D. magna, D. magna and D. galeata, D. pulex and D. galeata. The results support our hypothesis and demonstrate each microplastic type had a different effect on the density of the competing species. The presence of polystyrene and polyethylene lowered the density of the superior competitor in each of the three pairs, at least partially due to a reduction in the number of gravid females, but not their fecundity. The presence of the polyhydroxybutyrate, in turn, increased the population density of D. magna in the variants with each of the two remaining species. Moreover, the presence of microplastics affected the elimination rate of the inferior competitor, i.e. polystyrene expedited the exclusion of D. magna by D. pulex, and polyhydroxybutyrate hampered the exclusion of D. magna by D. pulex. Our results suggest that long-term exposure to environmentally relevant densities of both non-biodegradable and biodegradable microplastics may affect the relative abundance of co-occurring species in zooplankton communities, and thus the functioning of aquatic ecosystems.
Topics: Animals; Daphnia; Ecology; Ecosystem; Microplastics; Plastics; Polyethylenes; Polystyrenes; Water Pollutants, Chemical
PubMed: 36089144
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120121 -
ACS Nano Jan 2017Focusing and enriching submicrometer and nanometer scale objects is of great importance for many applications in biology, chemistry, engineering, and medicine. Here, we...
Focusing and enriching submicrometer and nanometer scale objects is of great importance for many applications in biology, chemistry, engineering, and medicine. Here, we present an acoustofluidic chip that can generate single vortex acoustic streaming inside a glass capillary through using low-power acoustic waves (only 5 V is required). The single vortex acoustic streaming that is generated, in conjunction with the acoustic radiation force, is able to enrich submicrometer- and nanometer-sized particles in a small volume. Numerical simulations were used to elucidate the mechanism of the single vortex formation and were verified experimentally, demonstrating the focusing of silica and polystyrene particles ranging in diameter from 80 to 500 nm. Moreover, the acoustofluidic chip was used to conduct an immunoassay in which nanoparticles that captured fluorescently labeled biomarkers were concentrated to enhance the emitted signal. With its advantages in simplicity, functionality, and power consumption, the acoustofluidic chip we present here is promising for many point-of-care applications.
Topics: Biomarkers; Fluorescence; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; Nanoparticles; Point-of-Care Systems; Polystyrenes; Sound
PubMed: 28068078
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b06784 -
Analytical Chemistry Jul 2023Acoustophoresis has become a powerful tool to separate microparticles and cells, based on their material and biophysical properties, and is gaining popularity in...
Acoustophoresis has become a powerful tool to separate microparticles and cells, based on their material and biophysical properties, and is gaining popularity in clinical and biomedical research. One major application of acoustophoresis is to measure the compressibility of cells and small organisms, which is related to their contents. The cell compressibility can be extracted from the acoustic mobility, which is the main output of acoustic migration experiments, if the material properties and sizes of reference particles, the size of the cells, and the surrounding medium are known. Accurate methods to measure and calibrate the acoustic energy density in acoustophoresis systems are therefore critical. In this Perspective, polystyrene microparticles have become the most commonly used reference particles in acoustophoresis, due to their similar biophysical properties to cells. We utilized a two-step focusing method to measure the relative acoustic mobility of polystyrene beads of various sizes and colors and present a quantitative analysis of the variation in acousto-mechanical properties of polystyrene microparticles, showing a large spread in their material properties. A variation of more than 25% between different particle types was found. Thus, care is required when relying on polystyrene particles as a reference when characterizing acoustofluidics systems or acousto-mechanical properties of cells.
Topics: Polystyrenes; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; Particle Size; Acoustics; Cell-Derived Microparticles
PubMed: 37363950
DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.3c01156 -
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Jun 2022The use of polystyrene micro and nanoplastics in cosmetics and personal care products continues to grow every day. The harmful effects of their biological accumulation...
The use of polystyrene micro and nanoplastics in cosmetics and personal care products continues to grow every day. The harmful effects of their biological accumulation in organisms of all trophic levels including humans have been reported by several studies. While we have accumulating evidence on the impact of nanoplastics on different organ systems in humans, only a handful of reports on the impact of polystyrene nanoplastics upon direct contact with the immune system at the cellular level are avialable. The present study offers significant evidence on the cell-specific harmful impact of sulfate-modified nanoplastics (S-NPs) on human macrophages. Here we report that exposure of human macrophages to S-NPs (100 µg/mL) stimulated the accumulation of lipids droplets (LDs) in the cytoplasm resulting in the differentiation of macrophages into foam cells. The observed effect was specific for human and murine macrophages but not for other cell types, especially human keratinocytes, liver, and lung cell models. Furthermore, we found that S-NPs mediated LDs accumulation in human macrophages was accompanied by acute mitochondrial oxidative stress. The accumulated LDs were further delivered and accumulated into lysosomes leading to impaired lysosomal clearance. In conclusion, our study reveals that exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics stabilized with anionic surfactants can be a potent stimulus for dysregulation of lipid metabolism and macrophage foam cell formation, a characteristic feature observed during atherosclerosis posing a serious threat to human health.
Topics: Animals; Atherosclerosis; Humans; Lipid Metabolism; Lysosomes; Macrophages; Mice; Microplastics; Nanoparticles; Polystyrenes
PubMed: 35561548
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113612 -
Journal of the American Chemical Society Oct 2017Programmable colloidal assembly enables the creation of mesoscale materials in a bottom-up manner. Although DNA oligonucleotides have been used extensively as the...
Programmable colloidal assembly enables the creation of mesoscale materials in a bottom-up manner. Although DNA oligonucleotides have been used extensively as the programmable units in this paradigm, proteins, which exhibit more diverse modes of association and function, have not been widely used to direct colloidal assembly. Here we use protein-protein interactions to drive controlled aggregation of polystyrene microparticles, either through reversible coiled-coil interactions or through intermolecular isopeptide linkages. The sizes of the resulting aggregates are tunable and can be controlled by the concentration of immobilized surface proteins. Moreover, particles coated with different protein pairs undergo orthogonal assembly. We demonstrate that aggregates formed by association of coiled-coil proteins, in contrast to those linked by isopeptide bonds, are dispersed by treatment with chemical denaturants or soluble competing proteins. Finally, we show that protein-protein interactions can be used to assemble complex core-shell aggregates. This work illustrates a versatile strategy for engineering colloidal systems for use in materials science and biotechnology.
Topics: Bacterial Proteins; Colloids; Dimerization; Immobilized Proteins; Models, Molecular; Particle Size; Polystyrenes; Protein Interaction Maps; Streptococcus pyogenes
PubMed: 28898068
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b07798 -
Journal of Hazardous Materials Jul 2023In the era of plastic use, organisms are constantly exposed to polystyrene particles (PS-Ps). PS-Ps accumulated in living organisms exert negative effects on the body,...
In the era of plastic use, organisms are constantly exposed to polystyrene particles (PS-Ps). PS-Ps accumulated in living organisms exert negative effects on the body, although studies evaluating their effects on brain development are scarce. In this study, the effects of PS-Ps on nervous system development were investigated using cultured primary cortical neurons and mice exposed to PS-Ps at different stages of brain development. The gene expression associated with brain development was downregulated in embryonic brains following PS-Ps exposure, and Gabra2 expression decreased in the embryonic and adult mice exposed to PS-Ps. Additionally, offspring of PS-Ps-treated dams exhibited signs of anxiety- and depression-like behavior, and abnormal social behavior. We propose that PS-Ps accumulation in the brain disrupts brain development and behavior in mice. This study provides novel information regarding PS-Ps toxicity and its harmful effects on neural development and behavior in mammals.
Topics: Animals; Mice; Polystyrenes; Depression; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Anxiety; Social Behavior; Nanoparticles; Mammals
PubMed: 37130475
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131465 -
La Revue de Medecine Interne Jun 2024Hyperkalemia is common in everyday clinical practice, and is a major risk factor for mortality. It mainly affects patients with chronic renal failure (CKD), diabetes or... (Review)
Review
Hyperkalemia is common in everyday clinical practice, and is a major risk factor for mortality. It mainly affects patients with chronic renal failure (CKD), diabetes or receiving treatment with inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (iRAAS). Therapeutic management aims not only to avoid the complications of hyperkalemia, but also to avoid discontinuation of cardio- and nephroprotective treatments such as iRAAS. The use of polystyrene sulfonate, widely prescribed, is often limited by patient acceptability. Recent data have cast doubt on its safety, particularly in terms of digestive tolerance. Two new potassium exchange molecules have appeared on the market: patiromer and zirconium sulfonate. Their value in clinical practice, and their acceptability in the event of prolonged prescription, remain to be demonstrated. The combination of a thiazide diuretic or an inhibitor of the sodium-glucose cotransporter type 2 (iSGLT2) with iRAAS therapy in CKD, may also improve control of kalemia. At present, there are no recommendations for the positioning of the various hypokalemic treatments. The choice of these treatments must be adapted to the patient's pathologies and consider the other expected effects of these molecules.
Topics: Hyperkalemia; Humans; Polystyrenes; Renin-Angiotensin System; Potassium; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic; Polymers
PubMed: 38220492
DOI: 10.1016/j.revmed.2024.01.004 -
Environment International Mar 2023Nanomaterials are widespread in the human environment as pollutants, and are being actively developed for use in human medicine. We have investigated how the size and...
Nanomaterials are widespread in the human environment as pollutants, and are being actively developed for use in human medicine. We have investigated how the size and dose of polystyrene nanoparticles affects malformations in chicken embryos, and have characterized the mechanisms by which they interfere with normal development. We find that nanoplastics can cross the embryonic gut wall. When injected into the vitelline vein, nanoplastics become distributed in the circulation to multiple organs. We find that the exposure of embryos to polystyrene nanoparticles produces malformations that are far more serious and extensive than has been previously reported. These malformations include major congenital heart defects that impair cardiac function. We show that the mechanism of toxicity is the selective binding of polystyrene nanoplastics nanoparticles to neural crest cells, leading to the death and impaired migration of those cells. Consistent with our new model, most of the malformations seen in this study are in organs that depend for their normal development on neural crest cells. These results are a matter of concern given the large and growing burden of nanoplastics in the environment. Our findings suggest that nanoplastics may pose a health risk to the developing embryo.
Topics: Animals; Pregnancy; Female; Chick Embryo; Humans; Neural Crest; Microplastics; Polystyrenes; Heart Defects, Congenital; Embryonic Development
PubMed: 36907039
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.107865