{"doi":"10.3390/toxics13110939","title":"Impact of UV Aging on the Toxicity and Bioavailability of Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS)-Traceable Core–Shell Polystyrene Nanoplastics in an In Vitro Triculture Small Intestinal Epithelium Model","abstract":"A major bottleneck in evaluating the environmental health implications of micro-nanoplastics (MNPs) is the inadequacy of analytical techniques for their precise quantification within complex environmental and biological matrices. Additionally, there is a conspicuous paucity of studies addressing environmentally relevant, photo-aged MNPs. In this study, the effects of UV aging on toxicity and bioavailability were investigated utilizing inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)-traceable 25 nm gold-core polystyrene shell nanoplastics (AuPS25 NPs) and a triculture small intestinal epithelium (SIE) model coupled with simulated digestions to mimic physiological bio-transformations post-ingestion. Employing dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the physicochemical and morphological alterations of AuPS25 NPs as a function of UV exposure time were investigated, revealing significant photo-oxidation within 14 days. Toxicological evaluations demonstrated that, contrasting with un-aged AuPS25 NPs, the digesta from UV-aged AuPS25 NPs at oral concentrations of 4 and 40 µg/mL weakened barrier integrity by ~15% and ~18% and heightened cytotoxicity by ~4.3% and ~5.4%, respectively. Although the NP translocation rates were similar for both aged and un-aged PS NPs, the uptake by SIE of aged AuPS25 NPs was significantly higher, reaching 72.2% at 4 µg/mL and 59.2% at 40 µg/mL. In contrast, less than 0.5% of the un-aged PS NPs at both 4 µg/mL and 40 µg/mL were taken up by SIE. These findings highlight the imperative to integrate environmentally aged MNPs into toxicological assessments, as they facilitate \"real-world\" MNPs. Finally, the use of ICP-MS-traceable core-shell MNPs enables the identification and quantification of PS MNPs in cell lysates and biological media via ICP-MS, showcasing the use of such a tracer MNP approach in cellular uptake and in vivo biokinetic studies.","journal":"Toxics","year":2025,"id":527375,"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":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9529,"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":1213597,"name":"Lila Bazina","orcid":"0009-0001-3266-3824","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":330771,"name":"Glen M. DeLoid","orcid":"0000-0002-6855-9172","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1404070,"name":"Alvaro Garcia","orcid":"0000-0001-5632-3085","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1178391,"name":"Nubia Zuverza‐Mena","orcid":"0000-0003-2721-7691","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1371036,"name":"Jakub Konkol","orcid":"0000-0002-6488-2167","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1371038,"name":"George Tsilomelekis","orcid":"0000-0002-0435-8216","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":241177,"name":"Michael P. Verzi","orcid":"0000-0003-4082-4330","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":548606,"name":"Hao Zhu","orcid":"0000-0002-3559-6129","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":645936,"name":"Jason C. White","orcid":"0000-0001-5001-8143","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":330772,"name":"Philip Demokritou","orcid":"0000-0002-2484-9143","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1371034,"name":"Satwik Majumder","orcid":"0000-0002-1201-4536","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":105,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:50:39.280101Z","pmid":"41304491","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":[]}