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Science

Microplastics Block Blood Flow in the Brain, Mouse Study Reveals (nature.com) 25

Scientists have observed for the first time how microplastics move through and block blood vessels in mouse brains, according to research published in Science Advances this week. Using fluorescence imaging, researchers at Peking University tracked plastic particles as they were consumed by immune cells and accumulated in brain blood vessels, causing obstructions that persisted for up to four weeks and reduced blood flow. The study found that these blockages, which behaved similarly to blood clots, decreased the mice's mobility for several days.

Microplastics Block Blood Flow in the Brain, Mouse Study Reveals

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  • The entire Republican party needs to be tested for microplastics, apparently.
    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by Daina.0 ( 7328506 )

      Yep, there's hope for the Republicans. The Democrats have already lost their minds. Just look at the deception, corruption, and senility of Mr. Biden and his cronies.

      • I'm a bit confused. Which one has been convicted of crimes by a jury?

      • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        Find real evidence or STFU

        • Find real evidence or STFU

          If you’re questioning where I can find evidence of Joe Bidens obvious mental decline, I just did. You just handed it to me with that idiotic comment.

          Find real evidence? You truly think Pelosi justified insider trading as a fucking job perk for a lawmaker? How much more smoke needs to be pouring out of the dumpster fire labeled “Hunters $50,000 art” before you realize a cokehead shouldn’t have been sitting on the Board of a Ukrainian company we sent billions to? Think anyone is go

          • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

            Lots of politicians own stock they make laws about. Why single out Pelosi? Why, because YOU are BIASED!

            Hunter's salary and art? Why do you ignore Jared's lucrative Saudi connections? Why, because YOU are BIASED!

            Go self-rapture, you hypocritical GULLIBLE MAGAt!

      • Yeah, that's the problem with conservatism. Nobody really wants the Democrats around because they're too conservative. They're just not outright antiamerican like the Republicans are.
  • by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Friday January 24, 2025 @09:32PM (#65116961)
    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... [nih.gov]

    A review of respirable fine particulate matter (PM2.5)-induced brain damage

    Respirable fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been one of the most widely publicized indicators of pollution in recent years. Epidemiological studies have established a strong association between PM2.5, lung disease, and cardiovascular disease. Recent studies have shown that PM2.5 is also strongly associated with brain damage, mainly cerebrovascular damage (stroke) and neurological damage to the brain (changes in cognitive function, dementia, psychiatric disorders, etc.). PM2.5 can pass through the lungâ"gasâ"blood barrier and the âoegutâ"microbialâ"brainâ axis to cause systemic oxidative stress and inflammation, or directly enter brain tissue via the olfactory nerve, eventually damaging the cerebral blood vessels and brain nerves.

    In the stackup of sources, microplastics aren't a specific category, I would suppose fall under "other sources," but by far the largest sources are combustion such as coal.

    https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com]

    So my question is, do microplastics cause greater harm than anyother type of similar-sized particles? The problem with the fossil fuel ones is that we actively expel them up into the air.

    • I think the answer is: we don't know. These plastics are ingested through the lungs, but also by what we eat and drink. Either way, it is clear there are no short term acute effects (or we would have noticed them by now), but there may be long term issues. In the famous words of every researcher ever: "more study is needed"
  • Article is paywalled, so I couldn't get details if they are there. But a key factor is the quantity of microplastics required to cause blockages. In other words, do microplastics cause blood vessel blockages in mice that eat ordinary diets, or do they have to be fed nothing but pellets of microplastics to see the effect? Did they inject microplastics directly into the bloodstreams of the mice?

    The quantity is key because if the required amount is much more than what a mouse (or human) would normally encounte

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Article is paywalled,

      or clogged by microplastics.

    • by Samare ( 2779329 )

      The study article isn't paywalled: https://www.science.org/doi/10... [science.org]

      On the basis of previous research, mice were assigned randomly to untreated or gavaged with 100 l of MP water mixture at a dose of 2 mg/ml. Experimenters were informed about the grouping of mice. MPs can enter the human bloodstream through medical supplies (8, 70–72), about 12 g of MPs per milliliter of blood have been detected in human blood. The need to simulate the human condition in the concentration settings of the experiment was taken into account. We would like to bring mouse blood MPs to this level by injection. An adult mouse of 30 g has a blood volume of about 2 ml. We injected 100 l of MPs at a concentration of 1 mg/ml intravenously into the mouse, and the diluted final concentration after entering the bloodstream should be blood of about 50 g/ml.

      • by Samare ( 2779329 )

        Thanks to Slashdot, the micro prefixes have been removed. Here it is again with them:

        On the basis of previous research, mice were assigned randomly to untreated or gavaged with 100 micro l of MP water mixture at a dose of 2 mg/ml. Experimenters were informed about the grouping of mice. MPs can enter the human bloodstream through medical supplies (8, 70–72), about 12 micro g of MPs per milliliter of blood have been detected in human blood. The need to simulate the human condition in the concentration settings of the experiment was taken into account. We would like to bring mouse blood MPs to this level by injection. An adult mouse of 30 g has a blood volume of about 2 ml. We injected 100 micro l of MPs at a concentration of 1 mg/ml intravenously into the mouse, and the diluted final concentration after entering the bloodstream should be blood of about 50 micro g/ml.

        • Great info, thanks!

          To if I'm reading this right, up to 12 micrograms per ml have been detected in human blood.
          The experiment used a concentration of 50 micrograms per ml.

          So the experiment 4x the concentration of what has been observed in humans.

          It's unclear whether the *kinds* and *size* of microplastics in the test, mirrored what is found in human blood.

          So still, an interesting test, but not by any means authoritative or reflective of real life conditions.

    • FYI, you often can access paywalled articles through archive.ph. In retrospect, though, most of them aren't worth the money. Actually, if they had not been paywalled, they wouldn't be worth the time spent reading them.

  • Why are we letting mice do studies?
    • by Jamu ( 852752 )
      Because they are, in fact, the protrusions into our dimension of hyper-intellegent pan-dimensional beings.

Solutions are obvious if one only has the optical power to observe them over the horizon. -- K.A. Arsdall

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