Micro- may disrupt skeletal tissues through inflammatory, oxidative, cell-death, senescence, and epigenetic pathways linked to musculoskeletal disease.
Evidence
This systematic review summarizes exposure routes, tissue accumulation, detection methods, and mechanistic evidence for micro-nanoplastic effects on bone, cartilage, intervertebral disc, bone marrow, and related diseases.
Caveat
The review synthesizes mostly mechanistic and risk-assessment evidence, so clinical translation, high-risk monitoring, and direct human disease causality remain uncertain.
Simplified
In recent years, micro-, as globally prevalent emerging environmental pollutants, can enter the human body through oral ingestion, respiratory inhalation, and dermal contact, and widely distribute in diverse tissues including blood, placenta, lung, bone marrow, and bone, thereby arousing widespread concern regarding their health risks. As an essential functional system of the human body, the skeletal system is involved in mechanical support, metabolic homeostasis, and immune regulation. Disruption of may induce a series of musculoskeletal diseases, such as osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, intervertebral disc degeneration, and osteoarthritis. Accumulating evidence has verified that micro-nanoplastics can accumulate in human bone, cartilage, intervertebral disc, and bone marrow, and destroy skeletal homeostasis via multiple mechanisms, including inflammatory response, oxidative stress, pyroptosis, ferroptosis, cellular senescence, and epigenetic regulation, thus participating in the occurrence and development of musculoskeletal diseases. This paper systematically reviews the sources, classification, environmental distribution, human exposure pathways, and systemic toxic effects of micro-nanoplastics. It emphatically expounds the impacts and potential molecular mechanisms of micro-nanoplastics on osteoporosis, intervertebral disc degeneration, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, lupus-related musculoskeletal lesions, and osteosarcoma progression. Furthermore, we summarize the detection methods and research limitations of micro-nanoplastics in skeletal tissues, and prospect future directions in environmental prevention and control, clinical translation, and high-risk population monitoring. This review is expected to provide novel ideas for mechanistic investigation, risk assessment, and clinical translation of micro-nanoplastic-associated skeletal diseases.
Key numbers
PVC and PET particles significantly elevated in 37 OP patients compared to non-osteoporotic individuals.
in Osteoporotic Patients
Blood samples analyzed for microplastic composition.
detected in human bone, cartilage, intervertebral discs, and bone marrow.
in Human Tissues
Findings from various human sample studies.
PS-MP exposure caused significant damage to trabecular bone structure in mice.
Increased Osteoclast Activation
In vivo studies demonstrating effects on bone structure.
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