Reliable isolation of microplastics (MPs) from cured fish products remains challenging because their complex matrices, characterized by high lipid, protein, salt, and mineral contents, hinder organic matter digestion and compromise polymer recovery. In this study, a sequential hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂)–potassium hydroxide (KOH) digestion protocol was developed and optimized for efficient MPs extraction from diverse cured fish matrices. A preliminary evaluation of different H₂O₂:KOH ratios identified 30:70 (v/v) as the optimum reagent combination, while Response Surface Methodology (RSM) coupled with a Central Composite Design optimized digestion temperature and reagent volume. The developed quadratic models showed high predictive performance (R² = 0.9515 for digestion efficiency and R² = 0.9785 for filtration time) with non-significant lack-of-fit. The optimum conditions (60 °C and 36.39 mL g⁻¹ reagent volume) achieved 99.33
Abstract Microplastics (MP) have been reported in a wide range of environmental matrices, including seawater, freshwater, stormwater, sediments, soils, and air. Stormwater from urban areas has proven to be a major pathway for the transport of MP into aquatic environments, especially for tyre wear particles (TWP). This study investigates the presence of MP and tyre-related rubber polymers in stormwater collected during rainfall events at a Swedish highway. The specific objectives were to: quantify the concentrations of 13 MP polymers, including three tyre-related rubber polymers, in the particle size fraction 10–1000 μm in highway runoff; assess the relationships between MP concentrations, total suspended solids (TSS), volatile suspended solids (VSS) and metals. Total MP concentrations, including tyre-related polymers, were 2.4–4200 µg/L in the stormwater samples. The most frequently quantified polymers were polyethylene, polypropylene, and tyre-related polymers styrene-butadiene rubber and polyisoprene, in agreement with other studies on the occurrence of MP in runoff. The tyre-related polymers accounted for 41 ± 24% of the total MP concentrations in the samples where they were quantified, confirming TWP as an important source of MP pollution in this type of environment. The tyre-related polymers were quantified in lower concentrations than in other studies, indicating that concentrations could be underestimated due to the analytical size cut-off at 10 μm. No significant correlations were observed between MP concentrations and TSS, VSS or metals. This study contributes to the scientific understanding of MP emissions from road runoff and provides knowledge for the development of methods to treat road runoff from pollutants. Further research should address the development of standardised sampling techniques and sample preparation methodologies for pyrolysis-gas chromatography / mass spectrometry that can reliably identify and quantify smaller MP (< 10 μm) and are robust against interference from complex environmental matrices.
Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) have been detected in human placenta, amniotic fluid, umbilical cord blood, and fetal tissues, raising concern that maternal exposure may reach the embryonic milieu during sensitive developmental windows. Neural crest cells (NCCs) are migratory, multipotent embryonic cells that contribute to craniofacial and cardiac structures, the peripheral nervous system and its enteric division, and melanocytes. Whether disruption of this lineage could connect gestational MNP exposure to developmental phenotypes across organs has not been evaluated within an integrated developmental framework. This review traces evidence from maternal uptake and transbarrier transport to potential embryonic exposure, and then evaluates direct and indirect mechanisms by which MNPs may perturb NCC development. Direct effects may involve particle contact or uptake, lysosomal and autophagic dysfunction, mitochondrial injury, oxidative stress, cytoskeletal remodeling, and impaired survival or delamination, with downstream consequences for migration and target-site colonization. Indirect effects may arise from particle uptake by macrophages at the maternal-fetal interface or in embryonic tissues, leading to immunometabolic reprogramming and altered inflammatory, chemotactic, and extracellular-matrix cues. Chick embryo studies currently provide the most direct evidence, linking particle-associated signals and NCC retention in the dorsal neural tube with deficient pharyngeal arch colonization, regional cell death, and craniofacial and cardiovascular abnormalities. Embryo, organoid, and maternal-exposure models provide additional, but mostly indirect, evidence involving neural tube morphogenesis, the enteric nervous system, and pigment lineages. Across this literature, tissue-level particle detection does not establish intracellular NCC exposure, and organ phenotypes do not establish lineage-specific causation. Human-relevant internal dosimetry and direct comparisons between NCCs and non-NCC lineages remain major gaps. We propose MNP-associated environmental neurocristopathies as a testable framework in which NCC perturbation may represent a shared upstream event in a subset of cross-organ developmental phenotypes. This concept should not yet be interpreted as an established causal relationship in humans. Validation will require intact-particle localization, dynamic NCC lineage tracing, non-NCC controls, human-relevant dose-response analysis, and mechanistic rescue experiments.
Research into the potential health hazards of microplastics (MPs) has intensified in recent years, with growing efforts to compare and rank their toxicity based on polymer type, size, and shape. A critical but often overlooked aspect of this screening is particle dosimetry and, particularly, the distinction between administered and delivered dose. This study compares the sedimentation behavior of MPs as estimated by two computational models (RiskGone and Stokes’ Law) to experimentally generated data to better understand their accuracy and applicability in predicting MPs’ deposition. Aminated fluorescent polystyrene microspheres (PS) of 1 and 10 μm were used to assess the settling rates of MPs in an in vitro cell-free system over time in a dose-response relationship through fluorescence intensity measurements. Based on the in vitro system’s parameters (medium density, viscosity, etc.) and particle characteristics (size distribution, density, etc.), the modelling with RiskGONE and Stokes’ Law was also performed. In parallel, THP-1 cells were exposed to the same MPs under the same conditions (medium composition, plate setup and exposure volume) to investigate differences and potential incorrect conclusions when using the administered dose instead of the delivered dose when calculating MPs’ potency. Computational models and experimental data revealed that within 24 h, neither of the particle sizes will reach 100
