Ingenieurwissenschaften und zugeordnete Tätigkeiten
Filtern
Dokumenttyp
- Zeitschriftenartikel (2) (entfernen)
Sprache
- Englisch (2)
Referierte Publikation
- nein (2) (entfernen)
Schlagworte
- Toxicology (2) (entfernen)
Organisationseinheit der BAM
The production of plastics is rising since they have been invented. Micro, submicro- and nanoplastics are produced intentionally or generated by environmental processes, and constitute ubiquitous contaminants which are ingested orally by consumers. Reported health concerns include intestinal translocation, inflammatory response, oxidative stress and cytotoxicity. Every digestive milieu in the gastrointestinal tract does have an influence on the properties of particles and can cause changes in their effect on biological systems. In this study, we subjected plastic particles of different materials (polylactic acid, polymethylmethacrylate, melamine formaldehyde) and sizes (micro- to nano-range) to a complex artificial digestion model consisting of three intestinal fluid simulants (saliva, gastric and intestinal juice). We monitored the impact of the digestion process on the particles by performing Dynamic Light Scattering, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Asymmetric Flow Field-Flow Fractionation. An in vitro model of the intestinal epithelial barrier was used to monitor cellular effects and translocation behavior of (un)digested particles. In conclusion, artificial digestion decreased cellular interaction and slightly increased transport of all particles across the intestinal barrier. The interaction with organic matter resulted in clear differences in the agglomeration behavior. Moreover, we provide evidence for polymer-, size- and surface-dependent cellular effects of the test particles.
A reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled to an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (HPLC-ICP-MS) approach in combination with isotope dilution analysis (IDA) for the separation and parallel quantification of nanostructured and ionic silver (Ag) is presented. The main focus of this work was the determination of the ionic Ag concentration. For a sufficient stabilization of the ions without dissolving the nanoparticles (NPs), the eluent had to be initially optimized. The determined Ag ion concentration was in a good agreement with results obtained using ultrafiltration. Further, the mechanism of the NP separation in the HPLC column was investigated. Typical size exclusion effects were found by comparing results from columns with different pore sizes. Since the recovery rates decreased with increasing Ag NP size and large Ag NPs did not elute from the column, additional interactions of the particles with the stationary phase were assumed. Our results reveal that the presented method is not only applicable to Ag NPs, but also to gold and polystyrene NPs. Finally, IDA-HPLC-ICP-MS experiments in single particle mode were performed to determine the particle cut-off size. The comparison with conventional spICP-MS experiments resulted in a similar diameter and particle size distribution.