at Google ScholarTitle data
Wieland, Simon ; Ramsperger, Anja ; Groß, Wolfgang ; Lehmann, Moritz ; Witzmann, Thomas ; Caspari, Anja ; Obst, Martin ; Gekle, Stephan ; Auernhammer, Günter K. ; Fery, Andreas ; Laforsch, Christian ; Kress, Holger:
Nominally identical microplastic models differ greatly in their particle-cell interactions.
In: Nature Communications.
Vol. 15
(2024)
.
- 922.
ISSN 2041-1723
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45281-4
Project information
| Project title: |
Project's official title Project's id Open Access Publizieren No information Hochauflösendes Rasterelektronenmikroskop mit Niedervakuumbetrieb 426688606 Redox-Biogeochemie auf der Mikroskala - Biofilme und Modellsysteme 323566027 SFB 1357: MIKROPLASTIK – Gesetzmäßigkeiten der Bildung, des Transports, des physikalisch-chemischen Verhaltens sowie der biologischen Effekte: Von Modell- zu komplexen Systemen als Grundlage neuer Lösungsansätze 391977956 |
|---|---|
| Project financing: |
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft |
Abstract in another language
Due to the abundance of microplastics in the environment, research about its possible adverse effects is increasing exponentially. Most studies investigating the effect of microplastics on cells still rely on commercially available polystyrene microspheres. However, the choice of these model microplastic particles can affect the outcome of the studies, as even nominally identical model microplastics may interact differently with cells due to different surface properties such as the surface charge. Here, we show that nominally identical polystyrene microspheres from eight different manufacturers significantly differ in their ζ-potential, which is the electrical potential of a particle in a medium at its slipping plane. The ζ-potential of the polystyrene particles is additionally altered after environmental exposure. We developed a microfluidic microscopy platform to demonstrate that the ζ-potential determines particle-cell adhesion strength. Furthermore, we find that due to this effect, the ζ-potential also strongly determines the internalization of the microplastic particles into cells. Therefore, the ζ-potential can act as a proxy of microplastic-cell interactions and may govern adverse effects reported in various organisms exposed to microplastics.