ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1626941
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Interaction Between Food Ingredients and Gut Microbiome on Health and DiseaseView all 29 articles
Lactobacillus plantarum ZP-6 mitigates nanoplastics-induced liver damage in IBD mice via gut-liver axis
Provisionally accepted
Lili Zhao1*
Zihan Wei1
Yibin Wang1Wanrong Chen1Wenjing Zhang1Mengfei Xie1
Chen Hong1
YIPING ZHANG1Haiyan Gao2
Xiaobing Jiang1- 1Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, China
- 2Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang, China
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Nanoplastics (NPs) have become a ubiquitous environmental pollutant that exhibits a tendency to accumulate in large quantities in the tissues of the host body (enteritis patients) with intestinal damage and poses a serious health risk, for which there is currently no suitable method for in vivo clearance. Studies have found that lactic acid bacteria has the potential to eliminate pollutants from the body. In this study, we investigated the capacity of Lactobacillus plantarum ZP-6, a strain isolated from human feces with demonstrated in vitro microplastic-binding activity, to alleviate the physiological toxicity of polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs) in healthy and colitic murine models. Then, we investigated the capacity of Lactobacillus plantarum ZP-6 to alleviate the physiological toxicity of polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs) in healthy and colitic murine models. Our findings revealed that PS-NPs exposure resulted in systemic accumulation, triggering organ pathology and inflammatory responses in the liver and colon. Dietary intervention with Lactobacillus plantarum ZP-6 significantly reduced PS-NPs retention in blood and tissues while enhancing fecal excretion, restoring hepatic, renal, and colonic histopathology to baseline levels. Mechanistically, ZP-6 downregulated pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α) and anti-inflammatory IL-10 in affected tissues. Gut colonization dynamics demonstrated transient enrichment of ZP-6, which facilitated PS-NPs adsorption and fecal clearance. Concurrently, ZP-6 upregulated mucin gene Muc2 and tight junction components (OCLN, CLDN1), reinforcing the intestinal epithelial barrier and impeding PS-NPs translocation. Metabolomic analysis further indicated that ZP-6 rectified PS-NPs-induced hepatic metabolic dysregulation via the gut-liver axis. These results elucidate a multifaceted probiotic mechanism for NPs detoxification, providing a promising translational strategy to counteract nanoplastic-related health hazards.
Keywords: Lactobacillus plantarum, Polystyrene Nanoplastic, Inflammatory factors, Metabonomics, colitic murine, Gut-liver axis
Received: 12 May 2025; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Wei, Wang, Chen, Zhang, Xie, Hong, ZHANG, Gao and Jiang. 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: Lili Zhao, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, China
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