Environment International noted that scientists from the University of California, Riverside, reached this conclusion after a study they conducted on laboratory mice, and it became clear to them that the effect of exposure to microplastic particles appeared on male mice, while this effect was not observed on female mice.
During the study, scientists used a standard model of cardiovascular disease and administered a dose of microplastic particles to the animals, equivalent to the amount of microplastic particles a human might be exposed to over nine weeks through water, food, and air. Despite maintaining normal weight and cholesterol levels, the size of atherosclerotic plaques in the male mice increased by 63% in the aorta and more than sixfold in one of the main arteries in the chest. In females, these values remained unchanged.
Analysis of blood vessel tissue showed that microplastics disrupt the function of endothelial cells – the inner layer of blood vessels that first encounters pollutants in the blood. Single-cell sequencing also showed activation of genes responsible for inflammation and blood vessel damage in both mouse and human cells. Furthermore, the plastic particles penetrated the blood vessel walls directly and were found within developing plaques.
The researchers emphasize that it is too early to apply these findings directly to humans, but the study provides one of the strongest pieces of evidence to date that microplastic particles can directly contribute to damage to blood vessels.
