Microplastics in the Lung Tissues Associated with Blood Test Index

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) have received a lot of attention and have been detected in multiple environmental matrices as a new environmental hazard, but studies on human internal exposure to MPs are limited. Here, we collected lung tissue samples from 12 nonsmoking patients to evaluate the characteristics of MPs in human lung tissues using an Agilent 8700 laser infrared imaging spectrometer and scanning electron microscopy. We detected 108 MPs covering 12 types in the lung tissue samples, with a median concentration of 2.19 particles/g. Most of the MPs (88.89%) were sized between 20 to 100 μm. Polypropylene accounts for 34.26% of the MPs in the lung tissues, followed by polyethylene terephthalate (21.30%) and polystyrene (8.33%). Compared with males and those living far from a major road (≥300 m), females and those living near the main road (<300 m) had higher levels of MPs in lung tissues, which positively correlated with platelet (PLT), thrombocytocrit, fibrinogen (FIB), and negatively related with direct bilirubin (DB). These findings help confirm the presence in the respiratory system and suggest the potential sources and health effects of inhaled MPs.

Multimodal detection and analysis of microplastics in human thrombi from multiple anatomically distinct sites

“…Compared to FTIR, it has the advantage of having a preliminary scan and eventually detects areas with actual particles, hence accelerating the identification process. 21 In fact, LDIR has been combined with other methods to detect MPs in human samples, such as FTIR in human sputum samples, 7 SEM in human lung, 29 cardiac and blood samples, 9 and Py-GC/MS in human testis and semen samples. 13 One downside of LDIR is that only one spectrum is recorded when two particles are adjacent to each other, while μFTIR has a better chance to discriminate between individual particles.…”

“…Recent studies have shown the accumulation of MPs larger than 100 μm in human sputum (median size: 75.43 μm; interquartile range: 44.67–210.64 μm) and lung tissues (11.11% of MPs larger than 100 μm). 7 , 29 However, further studies are needed to explore whether and how inhaled MPs enter the bloodstream. In vivo studies on the effects of MPs on rodents via dermal penetration are rather limited, but large MPs are unlikely to penetrate the skin barrier.…”

Inhalation of Microplastics—A Toxicological Complexity

“…Deposition of MPs in the respiratory system depends on their size, shape, and surface properties. Until now, only seven studies have characterized MPs in human lung tissues and bronchoalveolar lung fluid (BALF) using optimized analytical methods [2][3][4][5][6]49,50]. The results of these studies are summarized in Table 1.…”

“…The results of these studies are summarized in Table 1. Among the polymers that were targeted in lung tissues, the predominant one were polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) [2,4,5,49]. Focusing specifically on MP fibers, Chen et al, in 2022 [4], observed that the quantity of these fibers was twice as high in lung tumors than in normal tissues.…”

“…In addition to the size, the surface characteristics may induce pulmonary effects in animal-models exposed to PS microspheres by tracheal instillation [58]. Except in respiratory therapy, where spherical MPs are used as carriers for drug delivery application [59], humans are mainly exposed to airborne MPs with irregular shapes [6,49,50]. Workers exposed to polypropylene (PP) microfibers with an irregular shape and size coupled with lamellar fragmentation at the surface exhibited a 3.6-fold higher risk of respiratory symptoms compared to non-exposed individuals [60].…”