ArticleScientific reports2020
An end to the controversy over the microscopic detection and effects of pristine microplastics in fish organs.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 146 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Intestinal microplastic debris, flora dysbiosis, and insidious combined hazards across diverse aquatic and terrestrial organisms.Journal of advanced research · 2026Review
- Detection and Fate of Microplastics and Nanoplastics and Technologies for Their Removal.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Size-Dependent Tissue Translocation and Physiological Responses to Dietary Polystyrene Microplastics inAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Standardized trimodal histopathological examination for microplastic detection and tissue-level assessment in green mussels (Veterinary world · 2025Article
- Well-Being of the Baltic Herring and Bycatch Fish Species from FAO Major Fishing Areas 27 According to Microplastic Pollution.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Unusual Mass Mortality of Atlantic Puffins (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Protective Effect ofToxics · 2025Article
- A Simple Technique for Studying the Interaction of Polypropylene-Based Microplastics with Adherent Mammalian Cells Using a Holder.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mitigating Dietary Microplastic Accumulation and Oxidative Stress Response in European Seabass (Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Role of UV radiation and oxidation on polyethylene micro- and nanoplastics: impacts on cadmium sorption, bioaccumulation, and toxicity in fish intestinal cells.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2024Article
- Dietary Microplastic Administration during Zebrafish (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health.Annals of global health · 2023Review
- Effects of the Antidepressant Amitriptyline on Juvenile Brown Trout and Their Modulation by Microplastics.Toxics · 2022Article
- Chronic exposure to high-density polyethylene microplastic through feeding alters the nutrient metabolism of juvenile yellow perch (Animal nutrition (Zhongguo xu mu shou yi xue hui) · 2022Article
- Assessing the relationship between the abundance of microplastics in sediments, surface waters, and fish in the Iran southern shores.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2022Article
- Freshwater wild biota exposure to microplastics: A global perspective.Ecology and evolution · 2021Review
- Elevated CYP1A expression detected in pinfish collected from a coastal lagoon in the southern Texas Gulf Coast: indicative of exposure to microplastics or pollutants?Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Article
- A comparison of microplastic contamination in freshwater fish from natural and farmed sources.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Article
- Microplastics: A Review of Methodology for Sampling and Characterizing Environmental and Biological Samples.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The aquatic environment and the associated fish assemblages are being exposed to an increasing amount of microplastics. Despite the high number of publications on the presence of microplastics in fish, little is known about their uptake, translocation and accumulation within fish organs. Experimental studies on the detection and effects of pristine microplastics in fish have shown controversial and ambiguous results, respectively. Here, we conducted two experiments to detect and assess the impacts of dietary exposure of Danio rerio to different types of pristine microplastics. Our results show that D. rerio recognizes plastic particles as inedible materials but ingests them when mixed with food or fish oil. Accidental ingestion occurs in fish exposed to relatively small (1-5 µm) microplastic particles without associated food or fish oil. Additionally, D. rerio effectively eliminated pristine microplastics 24 h after ingestion; however, retention time was associated with increasing particle size and the intake of additional meals. Clinical signs, such as anorexia and lethargy, are present in fish fed relatively large microplastics (120-220 µm). The ingestion of microplastics does not induce any histopathological changes. To the best of our knowledge, we are able, for the first time, to fully demonstrate the uptake and translocation of plastic microbeads using confocal microscopy. Our results question the findings of previous studies on the detection and effects of pristine microplastics in fish and state that inaccurate interpretations of the histological findings regarding microplastics in fish organs is a prevalent flaw in the current scientific literature.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.