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

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.

Automated summary

The study assessed the long-term effects of PMMA-NPLs on the marine primary consumer Brachionus plicatilis through different exposure routes and food items. Results showed that the exposure route and food type may modulate the effects of NPLs on organisms, with organisms fed with N. gaditana showing better performance in all endpoints compared to those fed with T. chuii. Further standardization of assays is needed to better understand the effects of nanoplastics on marine organisms.