Weathered polyethylene microplastics induced immunomodulation in zebrafish

Abstract

Microplastics are pollutants of emerging concern and the aquatic biota consumes microplastics (MPs), which has a range of toxicological and environmental effects on aquatic organisms that are not the intended targets. The current study looked into how weathered polyethylene (wPE) MPs affected Danio albolineatus immunological and haematological markers. In this experiment, fish of both sexes were placed in control and exposure groups, and they were exposed for 40 d at the sublethal level (1 μg L^-1) of fragmented wPE, which contained 1074 ± 52 MPs per litre. Similarly, fish exposed to wPE MPs showed significant modifications in lysozyme, antimicrobial, and antiprotease activity, as well as differential counts. Results of the present study show that the male fish were more susceptible than female fish after 40 d of chronic exposure. Further studies are needed to ascertain how the innate and humoral immune systems of the fish respond to MPs exposure.