Depuration kinetics and accumulation of microplastics in tissues of mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis

Microplastics (MPs) constitute the predominant plastic type in marine environments. Since they occupy the same size fraction of sediment particles and planktonic organisms they are potentially bioavailable to a broad scope of organisms, such as filter feeders, which are particularly vulnerable to MP ingestion. To understand the potential impact of MPs in filter feeders it is essential to clarify the uptake, accumulation patterns and elimination rates with time of MPs. The aim of this study was to determine the depuration dynamics and accumulation in tissues of mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis exposed during 24 h to different size polystyrene MPs (1 μm and 10 μm), and depurated for a maximum of 7 days (T = 24 h, T = 48 h and T = 7 d). Mussels were chemically digested with KOH 10% and filtered to quantify the number of MP ingested, and they were cryostat sliced for MP localization in tissues. Both MP sizes were quantified in all depuration times, but mussels accumulated significantly higher quantities of 10 μm MP throughout depuration compared to 1 μm MP. A significant decrease was observed after 7 d depuration in mussels exposed to 10 μm. Mussels removed the same amount of 1 and 10 μm MP after 7 days depuration. However, the depuration dynamics differed for each size-MPs and showed to be size-dependent. Most of both size MPs were eliminated in the first 24 h, but 1 μm MP showed to pass faster through the digestive tract than 10 μm MP. MPs of 1 μm and 10 μm were localized mainly in the lumen and a few in the epithelium of the digestive tract (stomach, intestine and digestive gland) during the depuration and in the gills after the exposure; as confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. The usage of chemical digestion and histological analysis as complementary techniques show to be suitable to infer the depuration dynamics of MPs in mussels.