'Very concerning': Microplastics can accumulate in cancer cells and may help them spread, study hints

Microplastics may hang around in the body longer than scientists previously thought and may contribute to the spread of cancer when inside tumors, a lab-dish study suggests.

Micro- and nanoplastics most commonly enter the body through inhalation or, slightly less commonly, through ingestion. Previous research has shown that smaller MNPs — which have diameters less than 10 micrometers and are found in single-use water bottles — are more invasive than larger particles. Studies in lab-grown cells and mice have shown that such particles can penetrate cell membranes, accumulate in cells and trigger cellular stress.However, how MNPs build up in cells is poorly understood.

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.To study this, the researchers exposed various colorectal cancer cells to different sizes of MNPs in lab dishes. The researchers then probed what happened to these microplastics when the cancer cells divided. They found that the particles got distributed among the newly divided cells and noticed that cells exposed to MNPs were more mobile than those left unexposed.

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