More and more small plastic particles are accumulating in the tissues of the body. The trunk in the brain is very high, as a study by the University of New Mexico (US) now shows. In the past, microplastics have already been detected in the lungs, in the intestine and in the placenta.
However, the usual microscopy methods usually only record particles of five micrometer. “That is why smaller nanoplastic is unintentionally excluded,” the scientists write. One micrometer is a thousandth, one millionth of one millionth millimeters. The team around Matthew Campen used special infrared and electron microscopy to more accurately determine the plastic quantities in the body.
The result: in the kidneys, the average concentration of micro and nanoplastic in 2016 and 2024 was equally high. Significantly higher values, however, showed liver and brain samples from 2024. In the liver, the average concentration rose from 141.9 to 465.3 micrograms per gram of tissue, with the brain from 3,420 to 4,763 micrograms per gram.
Polyethylene usually included
With a chemical analysis, the researchers also determined how the plastic was compiled. They found the most common polyethylene, which is used for foils and surfaces. It was good for 40 to 65 percent of the plastic in the liver and kidney, even 75 percent in the brain. Analyzes of preserved brain tissue from 1997 to 2013 also showed that the amount of small plastic has increased considerably in recent years.
The plastic pollution in brain samples of people who have been shown to have a dementia was particularly high. They contain between 12,000 and 48,000 micrograms of plastic per gram of tissue. Some differences can also be attributed to geography. The health effects have not yet been fully clarified.
Mice oriented themselves worse
A group around HAIPeng Huang from the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences presented in research results from Beijing, according to which microplastics can be hidden in the brains of mice. The affected mice moved less, can be more oriented and less persistent, the study said. However, the results are not easy to transfer the mouse due to differences in the brain structure, the magazine “Science Advances” said.
Source: Krone
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