Correlation Between Cellular Uptake and Cytotoxicity of Polystyrene Micro/nanoplastics in HeLa Cells: A Size-dependent Matter

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2023 Aug 8

PMID 37552688

Authors

Yiming Ruan

Zheng Zhong

Xin Liu

Ziwei Li

Junxian Li

Lili Sun

Hou Sen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The cytotoxicity of micro/nanoplastics (MNPs) is known to be strongly influenced by particle size, but the mechanism is not clear so far. We reported the ability of polystyrene MNPs to be internalized by HeLa cells could be a reason for the size dependent cytotoxicity of MNPs. We found that small MNPs (10 nm and 15 nm in radius) could be efficiently internalized by HeLa cells, MNPs of 25 nm in radius could be slightly internalized by the cells, and larger MNPs could not enter the cells at all. We showed that only MNPs, which could be internalized by cells, had a toxic effect on cell activity in a dose-dependent manner. In contrast, MNPs, which could not be internalized by cells, showed no cytotoxicity even if at extremely high concentrations. We attributed the correlation between the size-dependent uptake of MNPs and the size-dependent cytotoxicity of MNPs to the enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and abnormal gene expression. Our study pointed out that cellular uptake is one of the most fundamental mechanisms for the cytotoxicity of MNPs.

Citing Articles

Correction: Correlation between cellular uptake and cytotoxicity of polystyrene micro/nanoplastics in HeLa cells: A size-dependent matter.

Ruan Y, Zhong Z, Liu X, Li Z, Li J, Sun L PLoS One. 2025; 20(2):e0319517.

PMID: 39946353 PMC: 11825048. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0319517.

Polystyrene nanoparticles induce DNA damage and apoptosis in HeLa cells.

Feola A, Madheswaran M, Romano G, Tewelde A, Maina E, DAbrosca G Heliyon. 2025; 11(1):e41298.

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PMID: 38675188 PMC: 11054682. DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics16040527.

Correction: Correlation between cellular uptake and cytotoxicity of polystyrene micro/nanoplastics in HeLa cells: A size-dependent matter.

Ruan Y, Zhong Z, Liu X, Li Z, Li J, Sun L PLoS One. 2023; 18(11):e0293935.

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