Plastic nanoparticles cause mild inflammation, disrupt metabolic pathways, change the gut microbiota and affect reproduction in zebrafish: A full generation multi-omics study

Moonika Haahr Marana,Rikke Poulsen,Eiríkur Andri Thormar,Cecilie Grønlund Clausen,Amalie Thit,Heidi Mathiessen,Rzgar Jaafar,Rozalia Korbut,Anna Magdalene Brun Hansen,Martin Hansen,Morten Tønsberg Limborg,Kristian Syberg,Louise Von Gersdorff Jørgensen

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127705

Moonika Haahr Marana, Rikke Poulsen + Show 11 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127705

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Abstract

Plastic pollution has become a major concern on a global scale. The plastic is broken down into minuscule particles, which have an impact on the biosystems, however long-term impacts through an entire generation is largely unknown. Here, we present the first whole generation study exposing fish to a 500 nm polystyrene plastic particle at environmentally relevant concentrations. Short- and long-term adverse effects were investigated in the zebrafish model organism using a holistic multi-omics approach. The particles accumulated in the yolk sac of young larvae and short-term biological impacts included immune-relevant gene regulation related to inflammation and tolerance as well as disruption of metabolic processes, such as the fatty acid and lipid pathways. The long-term effects comprised gene regulations pointing towards skin and/or gill inflammation, dysbiosis of the gut microbiota, a tendency towards decreased condition factor in adult males as well as a lowered reproductive capability. From this study, it can be concluded that exposures to plastic nanoparticles have an impact on population as well as ecosystem level in fish and likely also in other vertebrates.

Highlights

The amount of plastic debris entering the oceans every year has been estimated to be between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons (Jambeck et al, 2015) and the amount is likely to increase
Exposure to the plastic NPs caused mild inflammation, changes in the metabolome and gut microbiota, a tendency towards a lower body condition factor in males and lower survival of embryos produced by the exposed parents
Our results indicate that long-term effects may impact reproductive capabilities and potentially population dynamics; essential parameters that are often missed by short-term studies

Summary

Introduction

The amount of plastic debris entering the oceans every year has been estimated to be between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons (Jambeck et al, 2015) and the amount is likely to increase. For nanoparticles a low hy pothetical concentration has been suggested to be 1 pg/l (Lenz et al, 2016), 34 ng/l in surface water measurements (Guimaraes et al, 2021) and 15 μg/l as a high predicted environmental concentration (Al-Sid- Cheikh et al, 2018). Most exposure studies assess the impact of plastic particles over a relatively short time span and only addressing a few specific endpoints. This is a key component of the major knowl edge gaps concerning impact of NPs in more relevant environmental scenarios, especially concerning the continuous chronic exposure that aquatic organisms are subjected to during their lifetime (SAPEA SAfP bEA, 2019) and the interlinkage of the biological processes that may be affected

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