Development and application of a health-based framework for informing regulatory action in relation to exposure of microplastic particles in California drinking water

Coffin, Scott; Bouwmeester, Hans; Brander, Susanne; Damdimopoulou, Pauliina; Gouin, Todd; Hermabessiere, Ludovic; Khan, Elaine; Koelmans, Albert A.; Lemieux, Christine L.; Teerds, Katja; Wagner, Martin; Weisberg, Stephen B.; Wright, Stephanie

doi:10.1186/s43591-022-00030-6

Microplastics and Nanoplastics

Table 2 Summary of in vivo ingestion-based mammalian studies prioritized for Tier 2 expert evaluation

From: Development and application of a health-based framework for informing regulatory action in relation to exposure of microplastic particles in California drinking water

Study and DOI	Particle type and shape	Particle length (μm)	Exposure Concentrations (mg/kg bw/day)	Exposure Method and Matrix	Tissues Investigated	Number and type of endpoints reported^a
*Male reproduction*
Hou et al. [47] 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124028	Polystyrene Spheres	5	0.017, 0.17, 1.73^b	Drinking water Deionized water	Testis whole body (weight) Sperm Epididymis	1 Apoptosis 4 Reproductive 8 Inflammatory 1 Gene stress
Amereh et al. [1] 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114158	Polystyrene Spheres	0.025 and 0.05	1, 3, 6 and 20	Gavage Distilled water	Blood serum Sperm Testis	16 Reproductive
Li et al. [64] 10.1007/s11356-021–13,911-9	Polystyrene Spheres	0.5	0.083, 0.83, 8.3^b	Drinking water Deionized water	Sperm Testis	3 Apoptosis 8 Reproductive 1 Inflammatory 4 Oxidative stress 1 Gene stress
Xie et al. [124] 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.110133	Polystyrene Spheres	5	0.43, 4.25, 43.7^b	Drinking water Deionized water	Whole body Testis Sperm Blood serum	1 Apoptosis 4 Reproductive 3 Inflammatory 2 Energy metabolism 3 Oxidative stress 1 Gene stress 1 Body condition
*Female reproduction*
An et al. [3] 10.1016/j.tox.2020.152665	Polystyrene Spheres	0.5	0.083, 0.83, 8.3	Drinking water Deionized water	Blood serum Ovaries	4 Apoptosis 9 Reproductive 5 Oxidative stress
Hou et al. [48] 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112012	Polystyrene Spheres	0.5	0.015, 0.15, 1.5	Drinking water Deionized water	Blood serum Ovaries	2 Apoptosis 2 Reproductive 9 Inflammatory 4 Oxidative stress
Park et al. [85]^e 10.1016/j.toxlet.2020.01.008	Polyethylene Fragments	16.9	3.75, 15, 60	Gavage drinking water	Blood Lung Kidney Spleen Testis Stomach Seminal vesicles Ovaries Heart Thymus Epididymis Duodenum Small intestine Large Intestine Uterus Brain	4 Organ level 12 Blood biomarkers 1 Body condition 4 Reproductive 17 Immune
*Heart*
Wei et al. [116] 10.1002/tox.23095	Polystyrene Spheres	0.5	0.087, 0.865, 8.56^c	Drinking water Deionized water	Spleen Heart Blood serum	1 Apoptosis 3 Heart tissue 9 Inflammatory 4 Oxidative stress
Li et al. [65] 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115025	Polystyrene Spheres	0.5	0.087, 0.865, 8.56^c	Drinking water Deionized water	Heart Blood Serum	4 Apoptosis 10 Heart tissue 4 Oxidative stress
*Liver*
Deng et al. [29] 10.1038/srep46687	Polystyrene Spheres	5 and 20	0.272, 2.613, 13.56	Gavage Milli-Q water	Whole body Liver	2 Liver tissue 1 Nervous system 1 Body condition 2 Energy metabolism 2 Lipid metabolism 3 Oxidative stress
*Thyroid*
Amereh et al. [2] 10.1039/c9tx00147f	Polystyrene Spheres	0.025 and 0.050	1,3,6,10 ^c	Gavage distilled water	Blood serum	5 Thyroid 3 Lipid metabolism 2 Gene stress
Gut Microbiome
Li et al. [62] 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.125492	Polyethylene Spheres	10 to 150	6, 60, 600 μg ·d^{−1 d}	Food Basal feed	Blood serum Colon Duodenum Spleen Feces	4 Intestinal 6 Immune 4 Inflammatory 14 Microbiome

^aNumbers represent individual endpoints tested grouped by general effect category, which may include varying levels of biological organization from sub-cellular responses (e.g., changes in gene expression) to organismal level impacts (e.g., changes in body weight), additional details reported in Table S5
^bBody-weight normalized exposure concentration estimated based on reported water intake rate, reported average reported body weight, and reported exposure concentration in drinking water fed to rodent in study
^cEstimated exposure concentration based on reported concentration in drinking water and average reported body weight. Authors did not report drinking water intake rate of rodents, so an average value for this strain and life stage of rodent was used (1.7 × 10^–7 L ·kg⁻¹·d⁻¹; Hou et al. [47])
^dBody weight was not reported by authors, so body-weight normalized exposure concentrations could not be determined
^emulti-generational effects, both male and female mice included in the study, with emphasis on effects related to female reproduction

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