{"id":67608,"date":"2024-04-26T15:21:58","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T20:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=67608"},"modified":"2024-04-26T15:21:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T20:21:58","slug":"microplastics-make-their-way-from-the-gut-to-other-organs-researchers-find","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=67608","title":{"rendered":"Microplastics make their way from the gut to other organs, researchers find"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Microplastics make their way from the gut to other organs, researchers find\"Microplastics<\/h3>\n
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Visualization of systemic polystyrene microsphere translocation. Visualization of polystyrene microspheres resuspended from isolated pellet in 100% EtOH. The black arrow indicates polystyrene microspheres. Credit:\u00a0Environmental Health Perspectives<\/i>\u00a0(2024). DOI: 10.1289\/EHP13435<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It’s happening every day. From our water, our food and even the air we breathe, tiny plastic particles are finding their way into many parts of our body.<\/p>\n

But what happens once those particles are inside? What do they do to our digestive system?<\/p>\n

In a recent paper published in the journal\u00a0Environmental Health Perspectives<\/a><\/i>, University of New Mexico researchers found that those tiny particles\u2014microplastics\u2014are having a significant impact on our digestive pathways, making their way from the gut and into the tissues of the kidney, liver and brain.<\/p>\n

Eliseo Castillo, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology in the UNM School of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine and an expert in mucosal immunology, is leading the charge at UNM on\u00a0microplastic<\/a>\u00a0research.<\/p>\n

“Over the past few decades, microplastics have been found in the ocean, in animals and plants, in tap water and bottled water,” Castillo, explains. “They appear to be everywhere.”<\/p>\n

Scientists estimate that people ingest 5 grams of microplastic particles each week on average\u2014equivalent to the weight of a credit card.<\/p>\n

While other researchers are helping to identify and quantify ingested microplastics, Castillo and his team focus on what the microplastics are doing inside the body, specifically to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and to the gut immune system.<\/p>\n

Over a four-week period, Castillo, postdoctoral fellow Marcus Garcia, PharmD, and other UNM researchers exposed mice to microplastics in their drinking water. The amount was equivalent to the quantity of microplastics humans are believed to ingest each week.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microplastics make their way from the gut to other organs, researchers find Visualization of systemic polystyrene microsphere translocation. Visualization of polystyrene microspheres resuspended from isolated pellet in 100% EtOH. The black arrow indicates polystyrene microspheres. Credit:\u00a0Environmental Health Perspectives\u00a0(2024). DOI: 10.1289\/EHP13435 It’s happening every day. From our water, our food and even the air we breathe, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8611,34381,7402,34379,34380],"class_list":["post-67608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-human-health","tag-medical-press","tag-microplastics","tag-nicole-san-roman","tag-university-of-new-mexico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67609,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67608\/revisions\/67609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}