The Estrogenic Potentiality of Hydrophobic Organic Pollutants Contaminating Microplastics.

Even though microplastic pollution in aquatic environment is nowadays widely studied, a huge gap of knowledge exists on the real effects that can provoke. Hydrophobic contaminants have the ability to persist in the environment, to be adsorbed on surfaces (like microplastic surface) and to bioaccumulate inside organism’ tissues. Plastic microparticles, once ingested, can act as vectors and sources of these chemicals, which in turn may trigger adverse consequences deregulating the hormone pathways.

Our aim is to detect the presence of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) adsorbed on the surface of microplastics collected from Italian coastal waters of Central Adriatic Sea, and to investigate their potential estrogenic effects by using an E-screen assay. After microplastic classification (based on their dimension, shape and color), HOCs were analyzed through gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). All targeted HOCs (i.e. Polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, organophosphorus and organochlorine pesticides) have been detected on the surface of microplastics from the majority of the sampling sites with pirimiphos-methyl and α-HCH as dominant species. In addition, the HOC extracts from microplastics induced the proliferation of estrogen receptor-positive MCF-7 cells demonstrating potential estrogenicity of these microplastic-associated pollutants.