Effects of polystyrene microbeads on cytotoxicity and transcriptomic profiles in human Caco‐2 cells

• Published in: Environmental toxicology 2020-04, Vol.35 (4), p.495-506
• Main Authors: Wu, Shijin, Wu, Mei, Tian, Dongcan, Qiu, Lequan, Li, Tongtong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Annotations; Biological activity; Caco-2 Cells; Capsaicin receptors; Cell Survival - drug effects; Cell viability; Cells; Cyclin D1; Cyclin-dependent kinase 4; Cytokines; Cytotoxicity; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Down-Regulation; Environmental health; Environmental Pollutants - toxicity; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Ontology; Genes; Humans; Inflammation; Inflammatory diseases; Interleukin-1beta - genetics; Intestine; MAP kinase; Microplastics; Microplastics - toxicity; Microspheres; Nanoparticles; NF-kappa B - genetics; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II - genetics; Nitric-oxide synthase; Nucleic acids; pathway analysis; Plastic debris; Plastic pollution; Polystyrene; polystyrene microplastics; Polystyrene resins; Polystyrenes - toxicity; Profiles; Proliferation; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; Toll-like receptors; Toxicity; Transcription; Transcriptome - drug effects; transcriptomic; Transcriptomics; Up-Regulation
• ISSN: 1520-4081; 1522-7278
• DOI: 10.1002/tox.22885

Microplastics (MPs) pollution is a global paradigm that raises concern in relation to environment and human health. In order to investigate the molecular toxicity mechanisms of MPs, transcriptomic analyses were performed on in vitro Caco‐2 cell model. After observing that polystyrene microplastics (PS‐MPs) decreased cell viability in a dose‐dependent manner, the responsible genes and involved pathways that might make contribution to PS‐MBs‐induced toxicity to Caco‐2 cells were identified with Illumina RNA seq. A total of 442 genes including, 210 up‐regulated ones and 232 down‐regulated ones, showed differential expression after treatment by PS‐MPs with a concentration of 12.5 mg L−1 or 50.0 mg L−1 for 24 hours. Gene Ontology (GO) annotation enriched unigenes can be grouped into three separated clusters: cellular component (CC), biological process (BP), and molecular function (MF). The dominate pathways related to NF‐κB, MAPK signaling, cytokine‐cytokine receptor interaction, and toll‐like receptor were strongly influenced by PS‐MBs. These pathways are involved in modulating cell inflammatory and proliferation. The qPCR were applied to investigate the transcriptional level of five proliferation related genes (Ras, ERK, MER, CDK4, Cyclin D1) and four inflammation related genes (TRPV1, iNOS, IL‐1β, IL‐8), and the results were consistent with RNA‐seq data. This study has provided new insight into the understanding of the toxicity effects of PS‐MBs‐induced intestinal inflammatory diseases.