The distinct toxicity effects between commercial and realistic polystyrene microplastics on microbiome and histopathology of gut in zebrafish

• Published in: Journal of hazardous materials Vol. 434; p. 128874
• Main Authors: Guo, Xiaotong, Lv, Min, Li, Jinhua, Ding, Jing, Wang, Yunqing, Fu, Longwen, Sun, Xiyan, Han, Xiaoyue, Chen, Lingxin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 15.07.2022
• Subjects: Animals; Combined exposure; Danio rerio; digestive system; ecotoxicology; Enrofloxacin; Gut microbiome; Histological analysis; histopathology; Humans; intestinal microorganisms; metabolism; microbial communities; microbiome; Microbiota; microplastics; Microplastics - toxicity; Plastics; pollutants; polystyrenes; Polystyrenes - analysis; Polystyrenes - toxicity; Realistic microplastics; toxicity; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; Water Pollutants, Chemical - toxicity; Zebrafish; Realistic microplastics; Combined exposure; Histological analysis; Gut microbiome; Enrofloxacin
• ISSN: 0304-3894; 1873-3336; 1873-3336
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.128874

As a ubiquitous emerging pollutant, microplastics (MPs) have attracted widespread attention. At this stage, researchers mainly employed commercial MPs (CMPs) as the model particles to explore the toxic effects of MPs. But whether CMPs can reflect the effects of realistic MPs (RMPs) still remains unknown. Herein, the effects of commercial and realistic polystyrene MPs on gut microbiota of zebrafish were compared. Considering MPs co-exist with antibiotics in real environment, we further distinguished the effects of CMPs and RMPs when they co-existed with enrofloxacin (ENR). The results revealed that while both CMPs and RMPs significantly shifted the gut microbiota, CMPs exhibited stronger toxic effects and more severe damage to gut. Furthermore, ENR exhibited a distinct effect with both CMPs and RMPs on gut microbiota, while the addition of CMPs and RMPs significantly alleviated the toxicity of ENR. In addition, analysis via Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway database revealed that seven major level 1 pathways associated with metabolism, information processing and diseases in the microbial community were affected. Taken together, this work is the first to report that CMPs could not represent RMPs in terms of toxicity and other behaviors, reminding people the limits of using CMPs in ecotoxicology studies. [Display omitted] •This work is the first to study the difference between the toxicity of commercial and realistic MPs.•Commercial MPs had a greater impact on the zebrafish gut microbial community than realistic MPs.•The higher toxicity of CMPs may stem from their more complex composition.•MPs can significantly ease the change of gut microbiome caused by ENR.•This study proved the limitations of using CMPs as a model to explore the toxicity of MPs.