Micro- and Nanoplastics Are Plastic Particles Linked to Significant Rises in Liver Disease?

Related Vendor

Bimos - eine Marke der Interstuhl Büromöbel GmbH & Co. KG

Micro- and nanoplastics have already been detected in human and animal livers. Researchers at the University of Plymouth are now investigating whether these particles could contribute to inflammation, fibrosis and the global rise in liver disease — and are calling for closer cooperation between environmental and health research.

There is considerable evidence that microplastics and nanoplastics are present in the livers of humans, and wild animal populations on land and in the ocean. Now experts in environmental and human health are investigating whether the presence of these tiny plastic particles in the liver is driving disease and directly contributing to the soaring global rates of liver disease.

Published in the journal Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, the article has been produced by researchers from the University of Plymouth’s newly-established Centre of Environmental Hepatology.

Through a wide-ranging review of existing studies, they say there is clear evidence that exposure to micro- and nanoplastics can trigger oxidative stress, fibrogenesis and inflammation in animals, features that resemble those of advanced liver disease in humans.

With the liver acting as the body’s first major firewall, processing and detoxifying everything humans consume, there is a clear potential for these particles to enable the transporting of microbial pathogens, antimicrobial resistance determinants, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and carcinogenic additives into the human system.

The scientists have used that to introduce the concept of plastic-induced liver injury, and to call for increased research into whether it can accelerate the progression of alcohol-related liver disease and metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease, which affects more than 1 in 3 people worldwide.

The article’s lead author is Professor Shilpa Chokshi, Professor of Experimental Hepatology and Director of Centre of Environmental Hepatology, who has been driving research to develop therapeutics for chronic liver disease for more than two decades.

Professor Chokshi said: “Liver disease is rising globally and is now responsible for 1 in 25 deaths worldwide. While established risk factors such as obesity and harmful alcohol use remain central, they do not fully explain the scale or pace of this increase. This has led us to consider additional environmental factors, including micro- and nanoplastics, which may interact with existing disease processes and amplify liver injury. There is already strong evidence that plastics can accumulate and cause harm in the livers of animals, raising an important question — why should humans be any different?”

In the review, the researchers have highlighted critical methodological bottlenecks, key knowledge gaps and unmet research priorities, as well as a number of technical challenges that are presently hindering the search for further evidence of plastic-induced liver injury.

They have also provided a detailed assessment of the priority research required to fully quantify the effects of microplastics and nanoplastics on the liver, and the emphasised the importance of health and environmental experts working in tandem to address that.

Professor Chokshi added: “What this article shows is that we now have a growing body of evidence that plastics can accumulate in human tissues, and have been implicated in a range of medical conditions. From my perspective, having spent over two decades developing therapeutics for liver disease, the liver acts as the body’s gatekeeper — processing and detoxifying what we are exposed to. In an increasingly plastic-laden world, where plastics are closely associated with our food, water and air, these exposures may not only reach the liver but also interact with existing disease processes and amplify harm. If this is the case, it is something we need to investigate in much greater detail.”

From Plate to Brain

Microplastics in the Brain: New Studies Link Ultra-Processed Foods to Mental Health Risks

Professor Richard Thompson OBE FRS, Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Plymouth, is another of the article’s co-authors. He is Head of the International Marine Litter Research Unit at the University of Plymouth and a co-coordinator of the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty, and has spent the past three decades examining the sources and effects of microplastics and calling for a global consensus to prevent their future production.

“This is further evidence that plastic pollution is, without question, a global environmental and health challenge,” he said. “While some uncertainties about the absolute level of harm to the human liver remain, the fact that plastics are present at all — and the wider evidence of harm caused by plastic pollution — necessitates urgent action. The solutions unquestionably lie in ensuring the plastic products we make bring essential benefit to society and that those essential plastic products are safer — for example, in terms of their chemical composition — and far more sustainable, shedding fewer micro- and nanoparticles than is currently the case.”

Identifying the Harm Plastics May Cause to the Liver

Environmental hepatology is a rapidly emerging discipline that examines how the environments we live in — our air, water, soil, diet, and consumer products — influence liver health across the lifespan.

The Centre of Environmental Hepatology (CEH) brings together scientists, clinicians and environmental researchers to generate evidence that can inform prevention, improve patient outcomes, and support policies that reduce harmful exposures.

Among its projects are an ongoing investigation into how plastics and their associated chemicals, alcohol and dietary lipids interact to injure the liver and accelerate the progression of disease.

Using human liver samples, it will define the cellular and molecular events triggered by plastic exposure under healthy and disease relevant conditions and examine how plastics alter hepatocyte function, disrupt the gut barrier, activate inflammation and promote fibrosis.

Original Article: Microplastics, nanoplastics and liver disease: an emerging health concern?; Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology; DOI:10.1038/s41575-026-01188-7

(ID:50827750)