Project description:The contamination of marine ecosystems with microplastics, such as the polymer polyethylene, a commonly used component of single-use packaging, is of global concern. Although it has been suggested that biodegradable polymers, such as polylactic acid, may be used to replace some polyethylene packaging, little is known about their effects on marine organisms. Blue mussels, Mytilus edulis, have become a “model organism” for investigating the effects of microplastics in marine ecosystems. We show here that repeated exposure, over a period of 52 days in an outdoor mesocosm setting, of M. edulis to polyethylene microplastics reduced the number of byssal threads produced and the attachment strength (tenacity) by ~50%. Exposure to either type of microplastic altered the haemolymph proteome and, although a conserved response to microplastic exposure was observed, overall polyethylene resulted in more changes to protein abundances than polylactic acid. Many of the proteins affected are involved in vital biological processes, such as immune- and stress- regulation, metabolism and cellular and structural development. Our study highlights the utility of mass spectrometry-based proteomics to assess the health of key marine organisms and identifies the potential mechanisms by which microplastics, both conventional and biodegradable, could affect their ability to form and maintain reefs.
Project description:Microplastics are a relatively newly discovered environmental hazard that can contribute to the disruption of many physiological processes in the organism. There is evidence that they affect the physiology of the pancreas, but research is still very limited. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine the effects of PET microplastics on the global proteomic profile of the porcine pancreas using LC-MS/MS analysis. The pigs were treated with a low (0.1 g/day) or a high dose (1 g/day) of PET microplastics for 4 weeks. The analysis revealed that PET microplastics affected protein expression in a dose-dependent manner - the low dose affected the abundance of 7 proteins, while the high dose of 17.
Project description:Microplastics represent a growing environmental concern for the oceans due to their potential capability to adsorb different classes of pollutants, thus representing a still unexplored source of exposure for aquatic organisms. In this study polystyrene (PS) microplastics were characterized for their capability to adsorb pyrene (PYR) as model compound for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and transfer this chemical to filter feeding mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis. Gene expression analyses of Mytilus galloprovincialis exposed to polystyrene (PS) microplastics and to polystyrene contaminated with pyrene (PS-PYR) have been performed trough a DNA microarray platform.
Project description:Recent evidence highlights the multisystem effects of microplastics. We investigated the effect of the most common microplastic, polyethylene, on liver conditions. We included 4 experimental groups of mice; chow diet, chow diet and microplastics, high-fat/fructose/cholesterol diet, high-fat/fructose/cholesterol diet and microplastics. Following tissue collection after treatment, bulk RNA sequencing was carried out to profile transcriptomic activity of each group.