REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cytokines and Soluble Mediators in Immunity
This article is part of the Research TopicModulation of the Immune Response by Endocrine-Disruptors.View all articles
Health Risk Analysis of Micro-and Nanoplastic Exposure via the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis
Provisionally accepted
- Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Second Medical University, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, China
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As global plastic pollution continues to intensify, micro-and nanoplastics have emerged as novel environmental pollutants threatening human health. These particles enter the human body through dietary ingestion, inhalation, and skin contact,accumulating within the gastrointestinal tract. Their disruption of the intestinal microbiota has become a recent research focus. Studies indicate that micro-and nanoplastics can interfere with the normal mechanisms of the microbiota-gut-brain axis via neural, immune, and endocrine pathways, thereby inducing or exacerbating diseases. This paper reviews the exposure pathways and intestinal accumulation characteristics of micro-and nanoplastics in humans, the composition of normal gut microbiota and their metabolic products, elucidates the functional pathways of the microbiota-gut-brain axis and the potential impacts of microplastics upon entering the human body, and summarises the current research status, limitations, and future prospects.
Keywords: Gut Microbiota, health risks, intestinal barrierdysfunction, micro- and nanoplastics, Microbiota-gut-brain axis
Received: 08 Dec 2025; Accepted: 03 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Chi, Wang, Yu, Li and 韩. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuhua Chi
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