Demokritou Lab

Research focus

NIH R01 · 2025

Intestinal uptake, translocation, biodistribution, and toxicity of ingested environmentally relevant micro-nanoplastics (MNPs) and the role of inflammation using advanced cellular and in vivo models

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY/ABSTRACT After decades of increasing production of and reliance upon plastic materials, six billion metric tons of plastic waste has been deposited in our environment. Through environmental, commercial, and municipal degradation processes all plastics are eventually fragmented into micro-nanometer scale plastic particles and fibers known as micro-nanoplastics (MNPs). Consequently, MNPs have become a nearly ubiquitous contaminant of our environment and food web, to the extent that concentrations of MNPs in meat, dairy, seafood, and grains range from 10 to over 3,000 µg/mL. Yet little is known about the hazards of MNP ingestion exposures. A major concern is the ability of…

From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.