Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2026 Apr:162:284-295.
doi: 10.1016/j.jes.2025.05.047. Epub 2025 May 24.

Intranasal exposure to UV-irradiated polystyrene nanoplastics triggers vital organ inflammation and cognitive impairment

Huiqin Liu  1 , Xidong Wu  2 , Dan Luo  3 , Luxuan Liu  4 , Wuping Zhang  5 , Yan Ge  6 , Yaqi Peng  4 , Chengshuai Liu  3 , Chengyu Chen  7 , Tao Liu  8
Affiliations

Intranasal exposure to UV-irradiated polystyrene nanoplastics triggers vital organ inflammation and cognitive impairment

Huiqin Liu et al. J Environ Sci (China). 2026 Apr.

Abstract

Nanoplastics (NPs) are emerging environmental contaminants that can undergo photoaging before inhalation. However, it remains unclear how intranasal exposure to photoaged NPs triggers vital organ inflammation and cognitive impairment. This study investigated the health impact of intranasal exposure to polystyrene NPs (PSNPs) of 100 nm (PS100) and 600 nm (PS600), both before and after ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Irradiation generated reactive oxygen species, lowered zeta potentials, reduced particle sizes, and decreased solution pH. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments indicated that UV-irradiated PSNPs caused significant damage to the nasal mucosa. In rats, exposure to PSNPs, particularly those irradiated for 3 and 6 h, resulted in pronounced pulmonary inflammation. Additionally, inflammatory lesions were observed in the liver and kidneys, with smaller PS100 particles causing more severe liver damage. Notably, rats exposed to PS100 showed significantly elevated levels of alanine aminotransferase (72.27 ± 34.34 U/L) and aspartate aminotransferase (173.55 ± 35.13 U/L) (P < 0.05). Blood tests revealed increased white blood cells, lymphocytes, and neutrophils post-exposure. Furthermore, learning and memory abilities in rats declined as the duration of PSNPs photoaging increased, with up to a 48-second delay observed in the hidden platform test. These findings demonstrate that intranasal exposure to photoaged PSNPs induced inflammation in vital organs and impaired cognitive function, highlighting potential health risks associated with their inhalation.

Keywords: Learning and memory abilities; Liver and kidneys; Microplastics and nanoplastics; Nasal mucosa; Photoaging; Pulmonary inflammation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

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. The author is an Editorial Board Member/Editor-in-Chief/Associate Editor/Guest Editor for Journal of Environmental Sciences and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article.