ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Integrative Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1580682
This article is part of the Research Topic74th Annual Meeting of the Italian Society of Physiology: Breakthroughs and Key DiscoveriesView all 5 articles
Impact of Polyethylene Terephthalate Nanoplastics (PET) on fibroblasts: a study on NIH-3T3 Cells cells
Provisionally accepted
- University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
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Plastic pollution has become a major environmental and public health issue due to rising global production. Nanoplastics (NPs) are especially concerning due to their widespread presence and potential health risks. This study aims to determine the impact of the exposure to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nanoplastics (NPs) on fibroblast cells using the murine NIH-3T3 cells as experimental model. This is a relevant cellular model for several biological fields of application, including cell migration in wound healing and tissue regeneration. The PET NPs used represented an environmentally realistic PET NPs model since they were produced by a fast top down approach in a process close to the mechanical abrasion of microplastics occurring in the environment. They were characterized by an intrinsic autofluorescence which enables their use in studies of NPs interactions with biological systems without the need for additional fluorescent dyes. Additionally, the Hansen solubility parameters (HSP) of the PET NPs and the culture medium were determined to better understand their interaction.The study revealed that PET nanoplastics (NPs) wereare internalized by fibroblasts in a dosedependent manner, localizing in the cytoplasm. While they caused only a slight reduction in cell viability (within 20% inhibition at 10-100 µg/ml) after 24h exposure, they significantly impaired fibroblast migration, as demonstrated by thea wound healingscratch assay, indicating possible interference in tissue repair. The exposure of the cells to PET NPs induced a significant dosedependent ROS increase suggesting the induction of intracellular oxidative stress as possible mechanisms underlying the observed functional migration impairment. These findings highlight the potential risks of PET NPs to fibroblasts, emphasizing the need for further research into their impact on cellular functions and mechanisms.
Keywords: WOUND HEALING ASSAY, Cellular internalization, Oxidative Stress, cell migration, confocal microscopy, nanoplastics, autofluorescence, Hansen solubility parameters
Received: 20 Feb 2025; Accepted: 19 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Giordano, Lionetto and Lionetto. 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:
Maria Elena Giordano, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
Maria Giulia Lionetto, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
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