Microplastics Affect the Inflammation Pathway in Human Gingival Fibroblasts: A Study in the Adriatic Sea

Sergio Caputi, Francesca Diomede, Paola Lanuti, Guya Diletta Marconi, Piero Di Carlo, Bruna Sinjari and Oriana Trubiani
Additional contact information
Sergio Caputi: Department of Innovative Technologies in Medicine & Dentistry, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Francesca Diomede: Department of Innovative Technologies in Medicine & Dentistry, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Paola Lanuti: Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Guya Diletta Marconi: Department of Medical, Oral and Biotechnological Sciences, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Piero Di Carlo: Department of Innovative Technologies in Medicine & Dentistry, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Bruna Sinjari: Department of Innovative Technologies in Medicine & Dentistry, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Oriana Trubiani: Department of Innovative Technologies in Medicine & Dentistry, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-15

Abstract: The level of environmental microplastics in the sea is constantly increasing. They can enter the human body with food, be absorbed through the gut and have negative effects on the organism’s health after its digestion. To date, microplastics (MPs) are considered new environmental pollutants in the air sea and they are attracting wide attention. The possible toxic effects of MPs isolated at different sea depths of 1, 24 and 78 m were explored in an in vitro model of human gingival fibroblasts (hGFs). MPs isolated from the sea showed different size and were then divided into different sample groups: 1, 24 and 78 m. The results obtained revealed that MPs are able to activate the inflammatory pathway NFkB/MyD88/NLRP3. In detail, the exposure to MPs from 1 and 78 m led to increased levels of inflammatory markers NFkB, MyD88 and NLRP3 in terms of proteins and gene expression. Moreover, cells exposed to MPs showed a lower metabolic activity rate compared to unexposed cells. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate that the inflammation process is stimulated by MPs exposure, providing a new perspective to better understand the intracellular mechanism.

Keywords: sea; microplastics; pollution; human gingival fibroblasts; intracellular inflammation pathway (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7782/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7782/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:13:p:7782-:d:847204

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().