Researchers are investigating prenatal exposure to nanoplastics, which can affect the immune system and potentially influence development of asthma and allergies.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways
- Researchers from Swiss institutions are investigating how micro- and nanoplastics, which enter the body through food, water, and air, may affect the immune system of pregnant women and their unborn children.
- The placenta, a critical interface between mother and child, may play a key role in immune responses to plastic particles, potentially influencing fetal immune system development.
- The study aims to assess the risks of plastic exposure during pregnancy by analyzing how nanoparticles interact with allergens and pollutants, which could help identify plastics with a higher potential to trigger allergies.
Asthma, hay fever or chronic skin conditions: The occurrence of allergic reactions is diverse and on the rise. Among other things, environmental factors during the child’s early development in the womb are suspected, which lay the foundation for later illnesses. A team of researchers from Empa, ETH Zurich, EPFL, the University of Zurich and the Cantonal Hospital of St. Gallen is now focusing on micro- and nanoplastics. It is already known that the tiny plastic particles enter the body of pregnant women via drinking water, food and air and find their way to the unborn child. Here they could affect the fragile immune system of mother and child. Moreover, they are able to transport other pollutants, allergens and pathogens.
The new research project now aims to provide a holistic view of the significance of plastic particles during pregnancy. To achieve this, experts from the fields of materials science, cell biology and allergy research are working together with clinical experts. The project is funded by the Eduard Aeberhardt Foundation and another foundation.
The team led by project manager Tina Bürki and Sina Ruhstaller from Empa’s Particles-Biology Interactions laboratory in St. Gallen are particularly interested in the placenta, the central inter-face between mother and child. The organ forms exclusively during pregnancy and supplies the child with nutrients and messenger substances for a healthy development. The placenta could therefore play a decisive role when it comes to the immune response of mother and child to foreign substances.
It is already clear that nanoparticles can disrupt the communication between the placenta and the unborn child. However, the effect of micro- and nanoplastics on the immunological function of the placenta and the effects on the fetal immune system have not yet been elucidated. “There is thus an urgent need for a correct risk assessments of environmental pollutants for pregnant women,” says Bürki.
In order to analyze the entire process of nanoparticle exposure, the researchers will examine the micro- and nano-abrasion of everyday plastic products and evaluate the interactions with typical allergy-causing substances and pollutants. Finally, using cell cultures of the human placenta and fetal blood cells, the transport in the body and the reaction to the various particles and pollutant-particle combinations can be mapped as realistically as possible. “By releasing hor-mones and other mediators, the contaminated placenta could contribute to abnormal developments in the child’s immune system,” says Tina Bürki. For the sustainable use of safe plastic products, it is therefore essential to know whether and which polymers have an increased potential to trigger allergies, says the Empa researcher.
