Measuring plastic in the brain: Improving, but incomplete
Meanwhile, researchers are publishing papers without “sufficient quality control,” says analytical chemist Dušan Materić.
Researchers are making progress in measuring plastic content in the brain, but the methods are not yet sufficiently rigorous, warns analytical chemist Dušan Materić. A study published in Nature Medicine in 2025 estimated a high level of plastic in human brains, but faced criticism over potential contamination and false positives.
Determining the amount of plastic in the brain is more challenging than in the body as a whole, partly due to plastic particles having a similar composition to brain tissue in certain analyses. Scientists struggle to accurately isolate plastic from brain tissue, and precise quantification is crucial as people are constantly exposed to various plastics that could be neurotoxic or carry neurotoxic compounds.
Understanding how plastics interact with the brain and move through the body is essential for assessing health implications.
The presence of plastics in specific brain regions and their potential association with pathology could provide insights into brain function. However, detecting plastics in the brain is complicated by the organ's composition, which is about 60 percent fat. This similarity in fatty acid chains between lipids and some plastic polymers can complicate the detection process.
Detecting plastics in the brain is challenging due to the complexity of plastic itself. Disposable items made of polyethylene can break down into micro- and nanoplastics, which may interact with the brain's environment. Once ingested or inhaled, plastics can undergo chemical modifications and become embedded in lipids, making them harder to distinguish from biological material.
Various detection techniques are available, but none can fully characterize particle size, morphology, localization, and chemical composition simultaneously. Raman spectroscopy, a promising approach, can provide shape and chemical information based on molecular vibrations, but it's time-consuming. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy can be faster but is best suited for larger particles.
Therefore, multiple methods are needed to accurately measure and study micro- and nanoplastics in the body.
Written by urgent.news from The Transmitter's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
