AUTHOR=Roursgaard Martin , Hezareh Rothmann Monika , Schulte Juliane , Karadimou Ioanna , Marinelli Elena , Møller Peter 

TITLE=Genotoxicity of Particles From Grinded Plastic Items in Caco-2 and HepG2 Cells

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.906430

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.906430

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Large plastic litters degrade in the environment to micro- and nanoplastics, which may then enter the food chain and lead to human exposure by ingestion. The present study explored ways to obtain nanoplastic particles from real-life food containers. The first set of experiments gave rise to polypropylene nanoplastic suspensions with a hydrodynamic particle size range between 100 and 600 nm, whereas the same grinding process of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) produced suspensions of particles with a primary size between 100-300 nm. The exposure did not cause cytotoxicity measured by the lactate dehydrogenease (LDH) and WST-1 assays in Caco-2 and HepG2 cells. Nanoplastics of transparent PET food containers produced a modest concentration-dependent increase in DNA strand breaks, measured by the alkaline comet assay (net induction of 0.28 lesions/106 bp at the highest concentration (95% CI: 0.04: 0.51 lesions/106 base pair). The exposure to nanoplastics from transparent polypropylene food containers was also positively associated with DNA strand break (i.e. net induction of 0.10 lesions/106 base pair (95% CI: -0.04; 0.23 lesions/106 base pair) at the highest concentration. Nanoplastics from grinding of black colored PET food containers demonstrated no effect on HepG2 and Caco-2 cells in terms of cytotoxicity, reactive oxygen production or changes in cell cycle distribution. The net induction of DNA strand breaks was 0.43 lesions/106 bp (95% CI: 0.09; 0.78 lesions/106 bp) at the highest concentration of nanoplastics from black PET food containers. Collectively, the results indicate that exposure to nanoplastics from real-life consumer products can cause genotoxicity in cell cultures.