Review: interactions between microplastics and the gastrointestinal microbiome

Figures & data

Table 1. Effect of different types of microplastics in different doses and particle sizes on the gastrointestinal microbiota as well as on their host^a.

Host	Microplastic treatment			Effects		Reference^b
	Type	Dose	Particle size	Microbiota (GI sample type)	Host
Human	PET	4–5 intakes of 166 mg	160 µm ± 110 µm	Feces (in vitro): Increase: Firmicutes (Phascolarctobacterium, Lachnoclostridium and Megasphaera), Proteobacteria and Desulfobacterota (Escherichia/Shigella and Bilophila) Decrease: Bacteroidetes (Bacteroides, Parabacteroides and Alistipes) and Actinobacteria (Bifidobacterium spp.)	Not tested	Tamargo et al. (2022)
Mouse	PS	1000 μg/L and 100 μg/L	0.5 and 50 μm	Feces (in vitro): All MP groups: Decrease: Firmicutes, α-Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes 50 μm groups: Decrease: Actinobacteria 1000 μg/L of 0.5 μm group: Increase: Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria Decrease: Verrucomicrobia 1000 μg/L groups: Increase: Parabacteroides, Prevotella, Dehalobacterium, Ruminococcus, Bilophila, Bifidobacterium, Adlercreutzia, Plesiomonas, Halomonas and Acinetobacter Decrease: Oscillospira and Anaerostipes	Decreased body, liver and fat weights; decreased serum and hepatic TG and TCH; increased hepatic pyruvate; decreased mucin secretion in the colon	Lu et al. (2018)
Mouse	PE	100 mg/kg/d	45–53 μm	Small intestine and caecum: Increase: Actinobacteria, Adlercreutzia, Butyricimonas and Parabacteroides	Not tested	Deng Y. et al. (2020)
Mouse	PE	6, 60 and 600 µg/d	10–150 µm	Feces (in vitro): All MP groups: Increase: Firmicutes (Staphylococcus) Decrease: Bacteroidetes (Parabacteroides) 60 and 600 µg/d group: Decrease: Bacteroidetes (Bacteroides, Muribaculum, Clostridiales and Akkermansia)	All MP groups: Increased serum interleukin-1α 600 µg/d group: Higher TLR4, AP-1 and IRF5	Li B et al. (2020)
Chicken	PS	1, 10 and 100 mg/L	5 μm	Caecum content: All MP groups: Increase: Peptostreptococcaceae Decrease: Butyricicoccaceae, Erysipelatoclostridiaceae, Lachnospiraceae and Lactobacillaceae 10 mg/L group: Increase: Oscillospiraceae Decrease: Enterobacteriaceae, Eggerthellaceae and Erysipelotrichaceae 100 mg/L group: Increase: Actinomycetes, Enterobacteriaceae, Eggerthellaceae, Erysipelotrichaceae and Proteobacteria Decrease: Oscillospiraceae	Inflammation and tissue damage in duodenum and caecum, shorter and less intestinal and caecal crypts, less caecal submucosa, increased intestinal permeability, disruption of hepatic lipid metabolism	Yin et al. (2023)
Adult zebrafish	PS	500 μg/L of water	5 μm	Feces (in vitro): Increase: Fusobacteria Decrease: Proteobacteria	Intestinal villi and epithelial damage, oxidative stress, impaired amino acid and lipid metabolism	Qiao et al. (2019)
Larval zebrafish	PS	1000 mg/L of water	5 and 50 μm	Total larvae: All MP groups: Increase: Firmicutes Decrease: Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Methylobacterium 5 μm group: Increase: Methyloversatilis, Polynucleobacter, Legionella and Ottowia Decrease: Sphaerotilus, Haliangium and Leptothrix 50 μm group: Increase: Flectobacillus and Methylophilus	Changed metabolite profile (energy, glucose and lipid metabolism)	Wan et al. (2019)
Soil collembo-lan^c	PVC	1 g/kg dry soil	80–250 μm	Gut: Increase: Firmicutes (Bacillaceae) Decrease: Bacteroidetes	Not tested	Zhu D et al. (2018)
Crab (Eriocheir sinensis)	PS	40 mg/L	5 μm	Gut: Increase: Fusobacteria, Proteobacteria (Pseudomonas), Cyanobacteria and Chloroflexi Decrease: Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes (Dysgonomonas)	Decrease of alkaline phosphatase, phenoloxidase, lysozyme and acid phosphatase	Liu et al. (2019)

^aGIT: gastrointestinal tract; MP: microplastic; PVC: polyvinylchloride; PS: polystyrene; PET: polyethylene terephthalate; PE: polyethylene; TG: triglyceride; TCH: total cholesterol.

^bAll listed studies used Next Generation Sequencing (amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene).

^cFolsomia candida.

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Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.