Polystyrene nanoplastics induce multi-organ oxidative stress in mice: experimental evidence and a descriptive random forest-based analysis of study-design variables.

Abstract

Polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs), ubiquitous in natural environments, readily accumulate in organisms and pose emerging toxicological risks. This study pairs in vivo animal experiments assessing organ-specific oxidative stress responses induced by PS-NPs exposure with a descriptive random forest-based analysis of study-design variables reported in the published literature. Kunming mice were administered varying concentrations of PS-NPs with or without N-acetylcysteine (NAC) to assess oxidative stress across five organs (lung, liver, kidney, brain, and testicles). Dose-dependent increases in ROS and MDA, accompanied by GSH depletion, were observed in the lung, liver, kidney, and brain; testicles ROS and GSH followed similar trends, although MDA plateaued at the high dose without further significant increase. Additionally, pulmonary inflammatory cytokines (e.g., TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6) and histopathological examination revealed dose-dependent lung injury, which was also significantly alleviated by NAC co-administration. A descriptive literature mining further illustrated the current distribution of study design variables across organ-specific investigations, highlighting the existing research focus and knowledge gaps in PS-NPs toxicology. Collectively, this work demonstrates the complementary value of pairing toxicological experimentation with descriptive literature analysis to decipher nanoplastic health risks and highlights the promise of data-driven analysis for toxicology and environmental health assessment.