{"doi":"10.3390/microplastics4040096","title":"Microplastic-Mediated Delivery of Di-butyl Phthalate Alters C. elegans Lifespan and Reproductive Fidelity","abstract":"Microplastics harbor chemical additives and absorb pollutants from the environment. Microplastics pose a human health threat and have been found in nearly all human tissues. The toxicological pathways and physiological effects of microplastic-mediated chemical exposure following ingestion remain unknown. Here we use Caenorhabditis elegans to investigate the effects of di-butyl phthalate and polystyrene microplastic mixtures on fertility and lifespan. Our studies demonstrate that 1 µm microplastics at 1 mg/L exposure levels result in decreased brood size, whereas 1000 times fewer microplastics (1 µg/L) did not affect the number of eggs laid. While there was no change in brood size at 1 µg/L microplastic exposure levels, there was an increase in embryonic lethality. Microplastics-mediated delivery of di-butyl phthalate to C. elegans significantly reduced brood size and increased embryonic lethality compared to exposure to microplastics alone. This reproductive toxicity is potentially due to a stress response via DAF-16, as observed with microplastics and di-butyl phthalate co-exposure. Furthermore, chronic exposure (from hatching onward) to microplastics shortened the lifespan of C. elegans, which was further reduced with di-butyl phthalate co-exposure. The exacerbated defects observed with co-exposure to phthalate-containing microplastics underscore the risks associated with microplastics releasing the additives and/or chemicals that they have absorbed from the environment.","journal":"Microplastics","year":2025,"id":584541,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9497,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1470177,"name":"David M. Mares","orcid":"0009-0003-8957-3840","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1470554,"name":"Paola C. Garcia","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1470555,"name":"Maria F. Gamez","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1497345,"name":"Midori R. Flores","orcid":"0000-0002-5568-162X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1303229,"name":"Alyssa D. Friudenberg","orcid":"0000-0002-2074-3552","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1303230,"name":"Ryan L. Peterson","orcid":"0000-0002-9654-703X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":551878,"name":"Jennifer C. Harr","orcid":"0000-0002-1906-5715","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1470176,"name":"Chiara Angelyn O. Maldonado","orcid":"0009-0005-4687-0890","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":64,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:59:11.978098Z","pmid":"41676745","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}