3rd International Congress on Biomedicine (ICB2019)
A review on histopathological damages on aquatic and terrestrial organisms caused by Microplastics and Nanoplastics
A review on histopathological damages on aquatic and terrestrial organisms caused by Microplastics and Nanoplastics
Mina Yamani,1,*Amir Ali Orang Zaman,2
1. Islamic Azad University, Tehran North Branch 2. Islamic Azad University, Tehran Medical Branch
Introduction: In the past few decades, More than 690 species of aquatic fauna have been reported to ingest and accumulate plastic debris in marine megafauna. This litter has been found in the marine environment worldwide as a result of industrial activity, human consumption habits and inadequate waste management. Plastics, which account for 60–80% of marine litter, reach the oceans principally from land sources, being discharged directly or transported by water courses. The ingestion of Micro- and Nanoplastics has been shown to induce oxidative stress, histopathological and tissue damages in fish and marine biota, alter metabolism, lower the reproductive success and disturb normal behavior.
In this review we implement a multidisciplinary approach to assess whether or not micro and Nanoplastics of different types, sizes, shapes with different chemical additives and contaminants can affect tissues of organisms such as liver, gills, intestine, brain and other than the digestive tract, and then through the aquatic and terrestrial food web by affecting on the ingestion rates changes in prey which eventually leads to the predator and finally humans.
Methods: We used data from a survey of the available published peer-reviewed literature was conducted on January 22, 2019, through a bibliographic study using the Thompson Reuters database ISI Web of Science, Google Scholar, and NCBI PubMed. A total of 1845 candidate publications were identified. The abstracts of all candidate articles were Read to identify the relevancy of field or laboratory studies to MP ingestion or histopathological effects in marine or freshwater aquatic animals. Of the 1845 candidate publications, 164 were retained for further analysis.
Results: In this review we gathered the result of studies that have focused their attention on the potential effects of microplastics, alone or with association in environmental contaminants, ingested from adult organisms, and affecting organismic sub cells, cells and tissue levels. It was demonstrated that microplastics can be cause of oxidative and pathological stress followed by reduced immune functions, destruction of tissue and causing cancer in marine biotas. Other studies have characterized the evaluation of the effects of small plastic debris that are ubiquitous in the marine environment have on the digestive, predatory and reproductive activity of some pelagic and benthic species. Several other studies conducted on the interactions and the potential impacts that microplastics and Nanoplastics in marine and terrestrial environment could have on organisms that play a key role in the ecosystem functioning and nutrient cycling, to assess their potential effects not only at the individual level but also to the ecosystem. Finally, in our study we assembled several suggestions regarding the increased growth rate of destructive effects caused by microplastics polluting fish habitats that may be ingested by fish, thereby contaminating fish and with it the ecosystem.
Conclusion: Recent articles are more focused on Plastic debris that are ubiquitous in the marine environment and have been recognized as emerging pollutants and a great risk for biodiversity in the marine environment. From this perspective, it would be necessary to reduce our dependence on plastics, improve waste management, increase mapping, monitoring and studies on the negative effects of microplastics. Moreover, it would be important to reduce the entry of additional waste plastic in the marine environment, increase recycling capacity, and possibly increase the funds for cleaning our oceans. This could all be effective through combined actions of public, industrial, scientific and political efforts. So there will be more respect for the marine environment and its inhabitants and a decrease of potential risks to human health.