Overview
- A UCL-led team published a study in Advanced Science showing on Monday that photoacoustic imaging detected common microplastics such as polypropylene and polyethylene deep inside living mice after researchers injected about 0.5 mg of particles.
- The technique sends short laser pulses into tissue where plastic particles absorb light and produce tiny high-frequency soundwaves that ultrasound detectors convert into a map of particle locations.
- The result is an early, preclinical advance: the method avoids chemical labelling and permits repeated, deep-tissue imaging, but it used an injected dose that may not match real human exposure and its sensitivity in people is unproven.
- Researchers say the ability to image particles in vivo could enable studies of where plastics accumulate, how long they persist, whether they harm organs or implants, and how particle burden changes over time.
- Broader context shows humans routinely ingest and inhale microplastics and earlier studies have found particles in human brain and carotid plaque, while short interventions that cut plastic contact in the food chain sharply lowered urinary plastic-associated chemicals over seven days.