Some autopsies carried out in 2024 have shown a fact that scientists have highlighted: inside the brain microscopic fragments of human have been found plastic higher than samples collected eight years earlier, in 2016. The results are based on work that has yet to be peer-reviewed.
The discovery
“The concentrations we observed in the brain tissue of normal individuals, who had an average age of about 45 or 50 years, were 4,800 micrograms per gram, or the 0.5% by weight“, said lead author Matthew Campen, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of New Mexico. In practice, therefore, these microplastics are able to have a “weight” compared to the entire mass of the brain because they are so numerous. “Compared to the 2016 autopsy brain samples, it is about 50% more“. This would mean that our brain today is 99.5% brain and the rest is plastic.“, Campen stressed.
In the research, the researchers examined brain, kidney and liver tissue from 92 people who had undergone forensic autopsies to determine the cause of death in both 2016 and 2024. These brain tissue samples were taken from the frontal cortex, which is the area of the brain associated with reasoning and thinking and is most affected by frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer’s disease. “TheBased on our observations, we think that the brain is attracting the smaller nanostructures, 100 to 200 nanometers long, while some of the larger particles, ranging from one micrometer to five micrometers, end up in the liver and kidneys.“, Campen said.
The implications for the brain
First of all, it must be said that there is no need to create alarmism but only attention to a phenomenon due to the excessive consumption of plastic but also to its presence in everyday life. This increase, in fact, does not yet provide indications of possible brain damage that are all to be verified. “It is unclear whether, in life, these particles are fluid, moving in and out of the brain, or whether they collect in neurological tissues and promote disease.“, explained Prof. Phoebe Stapleton, associate professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Piscataway in New Jersey. “Further research is needed to understand how the particles might interact with cells and whether this has a toxicological consequence.“.
The other organs involved
According to the pre-print work, the brain samples tested contained 7 to 30 percent more microplastics than the kidney and liver samples of the cadavers analyzed. However, these plastics were also found “in the human heart, large blood vessels, lungs, liver, testes, gastrointestinal tract and placenta“, he explained to the CNN biology professor Philip Landrigan, director of the “Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good” and the Global Observatory on Planetary Health at Boston College, who underlines a significant aspect. “It is important not to scare people to death, because the science in this area is still evolving and no one in 2024 will live without plastic.” What does it mean? That we cannot escape from plastic since we all have at least one cell phone or computer and in each of them there is plastic but exposure can be reduced especially by staying away from bags and bottles.
What are microplastics like?
When we talk about microplastics we are referring to fragments smaller than five millimeters but they can also measure a nanometer: for example, a single human hair is about 80 thousand nanometers wide as reported by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Experts warn especially against nanoplastics which are even more dangerous for the organism because they are capable of binding to individual cells.”Somehow these nanoplastics make their way through the body and into the brain, crossing the blood-brain barrier.
Plastics love fats, or lipids, so one theory is that plastics are making their way through the fats we eat, which are then delivered to the organs that really love lipids: the brain is at the top of those.”