There is considerable evidence that microplastics and nanoplastics are present in the livers of humans and wild animal populations on land and in the ocean.
Now experts in environmental and human health are investigating whether the presence of these tiny plastic particles in the liver is driving disease and directly contributing to the soaring global rates of liver disease.
Published in the journal Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, the article has been produced by researchers from the University of Plymouth's newly-established
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Through a wide-ranging review of existing studies, they say there is clear evidence that exposure to micro- and nano-plastics can trigger oxidative stress, fibrogenesis and inflammation in animals, features that resemble those of advanced liver disease in humans.
With the liver acting as the body's first major firewall, processing and detoxifying everything humans consume, there is a clear potential for these particles to enable the transporting of microbial pathogens, antimicrobial resistance determinants, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and carcinogenic additives into the human system.
The scientists have used that to introduce the concept of plastic-induced liver injury, and to call for increased research into whether it can accelerate the progression of alcohol-related liver disease and metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease, which affects more than 1 in 3 people worldwide.
The article's lead author is
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"> Professor Shilpa Chokshi, Professor of Experimental Hepatology and Director of the Centre of Environmental Hepatology, who has been driving research to develop therapeutics for chronic liver disease for more than two decades.
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