The PMF has recently funded Professor Cramp’s team to set up a local biobank in support of his research into microplastics and human health. Microplastics are the end-product of a huge variety of man-made materials derived from oil products. The name speaks for itself. Microplastics vary in size and within them ‘nanoplastics’ are some of the smallest, measuring less, and often much less, than 1 micron or micrometers. A human hair is 100-150 microns across – a speck of household dust visible in bright sunshine measures between 1 and 8 microns, and hairspray droplets between 1 and 3. They are very, very small. Readers may be interested to know, and take pride, that it was a SW team based in Plymouth University which first coined the term ‘microplastics’ (Professor Richard Thompson 2004). Moreover, our local teams continue to lead in this hugely important field of environmental research.
Researchers have established that microplastics are present everywhere from the World’s deepest oceans to the North and South poles. They are to be found in much of what we eat and drink. We consume an estimated 0.1 to 5 grams of microplastics under 1mm in size each week. Does this matter? Possibly a bit. Possibly a lot. Possibly not much. But the point is that despite the foregoing, remarkably little is known about this material’s presence in human tissue and any impacts it may have on human health.
Matthew Cramp at the Peninsula Medical School, Richard Thompson at University of Plymouth and John Beckly at RCHT are collaborating to help answer some of these questions.
They have established that nanoparticles are small enough to be absorbed into the bloodstream from what we eat. All of this passes through the liver which in a sense ‘filters’ and ‘cleans up’ much of what we absorb from our intestines. Whether liver cells – hepatocytes – play a part in this is not yet understood. Key to this is being able to detect and analyse these tiny particles in the liver and other cells. To this purpose, Plymouth University has invested in state of the art equipment (pyrolosis gas chromatography mass spectroscopy) to examine samples of tissue and it is here also that the local availability of a biobank is critical. As samples become available, they can be analysed and then stored for future re-examination in anticipation of even more sophisticated equipment becoming developed in the future.
Understanding the fate and impact of ingested microplastics is a fundamental question of global importance and researchers in the southwest are uniquely placed to perform a significant role in this vital field.
Author: Professor Matthew Cramp, Photo: Derriford Research Facility
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