Plastic pollution can cause you harm
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| Neuroscience, Pharmacy Professor Jaime Ross’ study finds ‘widespread’ infiltration, potential for serious health consequences, including Alzheimer’s |
Professor Jaime Ross works in her lab in Avedisian Hall with
graduate students Lauren Gaspar and Sydney Bartman. The team is investigating
the potentially serious neurological impacts of microplastics on mammals.
Plastics—in particular, microplastics—are among the most pervasive
pollutants on the planet, finding their way into the air, water systems and
food chains around the world. While the prevalence of
microplastics in the environment is well known—as are their negative
impacts on marine organisms—few studies have examined the potential health
impacts on mammals, prompting University of Rhode Island Professor Jaime Ross’
new study.
Ross and her team focused on neurobehavioral effects and
inflammatory response to exposure to microplastics, as well as the accumulation
of microplastics in tissues, including the brain. They have found that the
infiltration of microplastics was as widespread in the body as it is in the
environment, leading to behavioral changes, especially in older test subjects.
“Current research suggests that these microplastics are transported throughout the environment and can accumulate in human tissues; however, research on the health effects of microplastics, especially in mammals, is still very limited,” said Ross, an assistant professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences at the Ryan Institute for Neuroscience and the College of Pharmacy.
“This has led our group to explore the biological
and cognitive consequences of exposure to microplastics.”
Ross’ team—which includes Research Assistant Professor Giuseppe Coppotelli, biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences graduate student Lauren Gaspar, and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program graduate student Sydney Bartman—exposed young and old mice to varying levels of microplastics in drinking water over the course of three weeks.
They found that microplastic
exposure induces both behavioral changes and alterations in immune markers in
liver and brain tissues. The study mice began to move and behave peculiarly,
exhibiting behaviors akin to dementia in humans. The results were even more
profound in older animals.
“To us, this was striking. These were not high doses of microplastics, but in only a short period of time, we saw these changes,” Ross said.
“Nobody
really understands the life cycle of these microplastics in the body, so part
of what we want to address is the question of what happens as you get older.
Are you more susceptible to systemic inflammation from these microplastics as
you age? Can your body get rid of them as easily? Do your cells respond
differently to these toxins?”
To understand the physiological systems that may be contributing to these changes in behavior, Ross’ team investigated how widespread the microplastic exposure was in the body, dissecting several major tissues including the brain, liver, kidney, gastrointestinal tract, heart, spleen and lungs.
The researchers found that the particles had begun to bioaccumulate in
every organ, including the brain, as well as in bodily waste.
“Given that in this study the microplastics were delivered orally via drinking water, detection in tissues such as the gastrointestinal tract, which is a major part of the digestive system, or in the liver and kidneys was always probable,” Ross said.
“The detection of microplastics in tissues such as
the heart and lungs, however, suggests that the microplastics are going beyond
the digestive system and likely undergoing systemic circulation. The brain
blood barrier is supposed to be very difficult to permeate. It is a protective
mechanism against viruses and bacteria, yet these particles were able to get in
there. It was actually deep in the brain tissue.”
That brain infiltration also may cause a decrease in glial
fibrillary acidic protein (called “GFAP”), a protein that supports many cell
processes in the brain, results have shown. “A decrease in GFAP has been
associated with early stages of some neurodegenerative diseases, including
mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as depression,” Ross said. “We
were very surprised to see that the microplastics could induce altered GFAP
signaling.”
She intends to investigate this finding further in future work.
“We want to understand how plastics may change the ability for the brain to
maintain its homeostasis or how exposure may lead to neurological disorders and
diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease,” she said.
The study was published in the International Journal of
Molecular Science. It was supported by the Rhode Island Medical
Research Foundation, Roddy Foundation, Plastics Initiative, URI College of
Pharmacy, George and Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience, and the Rhode Island
Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Network of Biomedical Research
Excellence from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the
National Institutes of Health.
