Intestinal Alterations in European Sea Bass Dicentrarchus Labrax (Linnaeus, 1758) Exposed to Microplastics: Preliminary Results
Abstract
This study investigates, for the first time, the intestinal responses of European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax chronically exposed to microplastics through ingestion. Fish (n = 162) were fed with 3 different treatment diets for 90 days: control, native polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polluted polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pellets. Intestines were fixed and processed for histological analysis using standard techniques. Histopathological alterations were examined using a score value (from 0 to 4). The distal part of intestine in all samples proved to be the most affected by pathological alterations, showing a gradual change varying from moderate to severe related to exposure times. The histological picture that characterizes both groups especially after 90 days of exposure, suggests that the intestinal functions can be in some cases totally compromised. The worst condition is increasingly evident in the distal intestine of fish fed with polluted PVC pellets respect to control groups (p < 0.05) to different exposure times. These first results underline the need to assess the impact of increasing microplastics pollution on the marine trophic web.
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MPs can induce toxic effects on organisms, affecting normal functioning, and may cause organ-specific toxicities such as neuronal, digestive, reproductive, and developmental toxicity.
“MPs can induce toxic effects on organisms, affecting normal functioning, and may cause several organ-specific toxicities, such as neuronal, digestive, reproductive, and developmental toxicity [17,18,19,20,21,22,23].”
From Is Wild Marine Biota Affected by Microplastics? (2022) · cites this paper as [20]
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- Authors
- Pedà, C., Caccamo, L., Fossi, M. C., Gai, F., Andaloro, F., Genovese, L., Perdichizzi, A., Romeo, T., & Maricchiolo, G.
- Affiliations
- Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (IT)
- Institute for Coastal Marine Environment (IT)
- National Research Council (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Pedà, Cristina
- ORCID
- Venue
- Environmental Pollution
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-05
- Volume
- 212
- Pages
- 251-256
- ISSN
- 0269-7491 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2259390818
- Cited by
- 611
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 34 · 2025: 52 · 2024: 75 · 2023: 79 · 2022: 97 · 2021: 90 · 2020: 64 · 2019: 43 · 2018: 43 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 11
- FWCI
- 21.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Environmental Pollution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Use Siena air (University of Siena) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Environmental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Aquaculture disease management and microbiota
- Keywords
- microplastics, Dicentrarchus labrax, intestinal histopathology, distal intestine, marine plastic pollution, fish gut health
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Bass, Fish Diseases, Intestinal Diseases, Plastics, Water Pollutants, Chemical
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