Acute and subacute repeated oral toxicity study of fragmented microplastics in Sprague-Dawley rats

Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Kyu Sup An¹  Kwang Hun Lee¹  Jinsik Kim¹  Muthuchamy Maruthupandy²  Wan-Seob Cho²  Soyeon Jeon²  Ji-Su Kim³ 

[1] Korea Conformity Laboratories, 8, Gaetbeol-ro 145 beon-gil, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 21999, Republic of Korea;Lab of Toxicology, Department of Health Sciences, The Graduate School of Dong-A University, 37, Nakdong-daero 550 beon-gil, Saha-gu, Busan 49315, Republic of Korea;Primate Resources Center (PRC), Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Jeongeup 56216, Republic of Korea;

关键词: Microplastics;    Good laboratory practice;    Mutagenicity;    Skin irritation;    Eye irritation;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Polypropylene (PP) is the second most highly produced plastic worldwide, and its microplastic forms are found in water and food matrices. However, the effects of PP microplastics on human health remain largely unknown. Here, we prepared 85.2 µm-sized weathered PP (w-PP) microplastics by sieving the microplastic particles after fragmentation and accelerated weathering processes. The prepared particles are irregular in shape and no chemical additives including phthalates and bisphenol A were not released in simulated body fluids. Then, the w-PP samples were gavaged to rats for acute and subacute toxicity testing in accordance to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) test guidelines under good laboratory practice regulations. The highest dose for gavaging to rats was 25 mg/kg bw/day, which was the maximum feasible dose based on the dispersibility of microplastics. Both toxicity testings for w-PP microplastics showed no adverse effects and mutagenicity. Thus, the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) of w-PP microplastics is higher than 25 mg/kg bw/day. Furthermore, the w-PP microplastics did not show any skin or eye irritation potentials in the 3-dimensional reconstructed human skin or corneal culture model. The dose of 25 mg/kg of w-PP microplastics is roughly equal to 2.82 × 105 particles/kg, which suggests that human exposure to w-PP microplastics in a real-life situation may not have any adverse effects.

【 授权许可】

Unknown