Ecotoxicology and environmental safetyApr 25, 2026

How microplastics may affect human health through changes in gut bacteria

Gut-Brain Axis Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Apr 26, 2026

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) can accumulate in vital human tissues, including the liver and lungs.

MPs enter the human body through ingestion, inhalation, and skin contact.
Ingestion of MPs causes physical damage to the intestinal lining, leading to inflammation and cell death.
MPs alter gut microbiota composition by increasing Firmicutes and decreasing Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria.
These changes in gut bacteria can affect the production of important metabolites like short-chain fatty acids and bile acids.
Altered gut microbiota may contribute to various health issues, including obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological disorders.
Regulating gut microbiota could be a potential strategy for mitigating health risks associated with MPs.

Simplified

Microplastics (MPs), environmental pollutants resulting from the degradation of plastic products and industrial processes, have become ubiquitous in global ecosystems. MPs can enter the human body through ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact subsequently accumulating in vital tissues such as the liver, lungs, blood, and placenta. This review systematically evaluates the metabolic fate of MPs in humans, emphasizing their translocation across biological barriers and organ-specific deposition. We elaborated on the direct damage of MPs on the intestinal mucosal barrier and while simultaneously remodelling the gut microbiota, and focuses on the regulatory role of gut microbiota in the process of MPs-induced human health damage. Ingestion of MPs induces mechanical damage to the intestinal mucosa, epithelial cell apoptosis, and inflammation. It also alters gut microbial composition, that most notably increasing Firmicutes while decreasing Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria, as well as disrupts metabolite production, including short-chain fatty acids and bile acids. These microbiota-mediated changes propagate via the gut-liver or gut-brain axis, contributing to obesity, cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders, and reproductive impairments. This review clarifies the potential mechanism of MPs affecting human health through gut microbiota, and clearly identifies gut microbiota regulation as a potential therapeutic strategy to mitigate MP-induced diseases, and provides practical guidance for reducing MP-related health risks.

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Competing interests

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

PubMed

How microplastics may affect human health through changes in gut bacteria

Abstract

Full Text

Funding

Competing interests

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