Is the toxicity of nanosized polymethylmethacrylate particles dependent on the exposure route and food items?

authors	Venancio, C; Ciubotariu, A; Lopes, I; Martins, MA; Oliveira, M
nationality	International
journal	JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
author keywords	Nanoplastics; Long-term effects; Foodborne; Feeding rates; Brachionus plicatilis
keywords	POLYSTYRENE NANOPARTICLES; BRACHIONUS-PLICATILIS; DAPHNIA-MAGNA; MICROPLASTICS; NANOPLASTICS; ORGANISMS; INGESTION; GROWTH
abstract	The environmental effects of nanoplastics-NPLs have been addressed mainly through short-term exposures to a few types of polymers, neglecting other NPLs that are economically relevant like polymethylmethacrylate - PMMA. This work aimed to assess long-term effects of PMMA-NPLs on the marine primary consumer Brachionus plicatilis, evaluating the influence of different exposure routes (waterborne, foodborne and both) and food items (Nannochloropsis gaditana and Tetraselmis chuii). Rotifers were 21 days exposed to: a) control, with clean medium and food-CTR; b) contaminated medium (8.1 mg PMMA-NPLs/L) and clean algae-MC; c) clean medium and contaminated algae (pre-incubated for 96 h on 8.1 mg PMMA-NPLs/L)-AC; and, d) contaminated medium and algae-MC/AC. Mortality (lx), total number of organisms (TN), fecundity (mx), populational growth rate (r), generational time (gt), and feeding rates were assessed. Effects on r and mx were found after 21 days. Organisms from AC had higher r than MC. MC/AC organisms performed better than control in all endpoints. Overall organisms fed with N. gaditana had higher TN, m(x) and r than those fed with T. chuii. In the AC treatments, rotifers fed with N. gaditana had higher m(x). Results highlight that exposure route and food type may modulate NPLs' effects, supporting the need for standardization of assays.
publisher	ELSEVIER
issn	0304-3894
isbn	1873-3336
year published	2021
volume	413
digital object identifier (doi)	10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125443
web of science category	9
subject category	Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences
unique article identifier	WOS:000647597600007