Plastics\u2014in particular, microplastics\u2014are 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<\/a> is well known\u2014as are their negative impacts on marine organisms\u2014few studies have examined the potential health impacts on mammals, prompting University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor Jaime Ross\u2019 new study<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cCurrent 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,\u201d said Ross, an assistant professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences at the Ryan Institute for Neuroscience and the College of Pharmacy. \u201cThis has led our group to explore the biological and cognitive consequences of exposure to microplastics.\u201d<\/p>\n Ross\u2019 team\u2014which includes Research Assistant Professor Giuseppe Coppotelli, biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences graduate student Lauren Gaspar, and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program graduate student Sydney Bartman\u2014exposed 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.<\/p>\n \u201cTo us, this was striking. These were not high doses of microplastics, but in only a short period of time, we saw these changes,\u201d Ross said. \u201cNobody 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?\u201d<\/p>\n To understand the physiological systems that may be contributing to these changes in behavior, Ross\u2019 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.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven 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,\u201d Ross said. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n That brain infiltration also may cause a decrease in glial fibrillary acidic protein (called \u201cGFAP\u201d), a protein that supports many cell processes in the brain, results have shown. \u201cA decrease in GFAP has been associated with early stages of some neurodegenerative diseases, including mouse models of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, as well as depression,\u201d Ross said. \u201cWe were very surprised to see that the microplastics could induce altered GFAP signaling.\u201d<\/p>\n She intends to investigate this finding further in future work. \u201cWe 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\u2019s disease,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The study was published in the International Journal of Molecular Science<\/em><\/a>. It was supported by the Rhode Island Medical Research Foundation, Roddy Foundation, Plastics Initiative, URI College of Pharmacy<\/a>, George and Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience<\/a>, and the Rhode Island Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Network of Biomedical Research Excellence<\/a> from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Neuroscience, Pharmacy Professor Jaime Ross\u2019 study finds \u2018widespread\u2019 infiltration, potential for serious health consequences, including Alzheimer\u2019s Plastics\u2014in particular, microplastics\u2014are 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\u2014as are their negative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1710,"featured_media":52177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1275,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landingpages","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52198,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52176\/revisions\/52198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}