Time-dependent immune response in Porcellio scaber following exposure to microplastics and natural particles

Time-Course of the Innate Immune Response of the Terrestrial Crustacean Porcellio scaber After Injection of a Single Dose of Lipopolysaccharide

“…In addition, we suggest that the injection of a low dose of LPS can be used to test the immunocompetence of an organism after exposure to other stressors, such as pollutants. For example, it has been demonstrated previously that P. scaber induces an immune response after exposure to certain pollutants, such as microplastics ( 7 , 8 ); however, it remains to be determined whether these effects are transient or more sustained, or whether they also affect the immunocompetence. To answer these questions, pre-exposed organisms (e.g., to pollutants such as nano- and microplastics, pesticides) should be injected with LPS, for example, and humoral and cellular immune parameters should be measured after 48 h. This would indicate whether the immunocompetence of these pre-treated organisms was impaired compared to the nonpre-treated control organisms.…”

“…Therefore, temporal profiling of the immune response can be used to determine the severity of an immune challenge. On this basis, many cellular and humoral immune components (i.e., the immune parameters) in the hemolymph or other tissues of invertebrates, e.g., crustaceans (e.g., muscle, gills, digestive glands) have become important as ecotoxicological biomarkers ( 4 – 8 ). These immune components are commonly used as biomarkers of the health of an organism or to assess its physiological status after exposure to different stressors, such as microbial infections, molting, and nutrition ( 5 – 7 , 9 ).…”

“…These immune components are commonly used as biomarkers of the health of an organism or to assess its physiological status after exposure to different stressors, such as microbial infections, molting, and nutrition ( 5 – 7 , 9 ). Since hemocytes play a crucial role in crustacean immune defense, the total number of freely circulating hemocytes in the hemolymph (i.e., the total hemocyte count; THC), the proportions of the three hemocyte types (i.e., the differential hemocyte count; DHC), and the hemocyte viability represent the three most commonly studied cellular immune parameters ( 5 , 7 , 8 , 10 ). On the other hand, antimicrobial peptides, lysozyme and phenoloxidase-like activities, and nitric oxide (NO) levels are also known to be frequently assessed humoral parameters ( 5 , 6 , 10 ).…”

Effects of microplastic ingestion on hydrogen production and microbiomes in the gut of the terrestrial isopod Porcellio scaber

“…The effects are possibly less obvious after relatively short exposure of only a few weeks and the detection of sublethal effects requires assessment of other parameters. Accordingly, immune response parameters are affected by MP (polyester fibers and tire particles) ingestion [23, 24]. Such effects are potentially linked to effects on the gut microbiome, but the effects of MP exposure on the gut microbiome of P. scaber have not been investigated yet.…”

Effects of Microplastics from Disposable Medical Masks on Terrestrial Invertebrates

“…Different types of responses to microplastics including population level endpoints (survival and reproduction), immune parameters and energy-related traits (electron transport system activity, energy-rich molecules, e.g., lipids, carbohydrates, proteins) were assessed after 21 days. In woodlice, the levels of immune parameters were assessed as our recent studies showed these are valuable markers of exposure to microplastics (Dolar et al, 2022(Dolar et al, , 2021(Dolar et al, , 2020. For mealworms, we measured energy-related traits as these are presumably changed due to an effect of microplastics on their feeding and growth (Wu et al, 2019).…”