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  3. Oligomeric lactic acid nanoplastics induce intrauterine growth restriction in mice by disrupting GATA2-mediated placental vascular development

Oligomeric lactic acid nanoplastics induce intrauterine growth restriction in mice by disrupting GATA2-mediated placental vascular development

  • PLoS Biol. 2026 Mar 26;24(3):e3003676. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003676.
Jia Lv 1 2,  Mengjing Wang 3,  Changzhi Shi 4,  Yanwei Wang 4 5,  Yihao Zhang 1,  Chang Gao 1 2,  Tian-Qi Bi 1,  Jing Yang 4,  Youdong Xu 6,  Qunan Wang 1,  Hua Wang 1,  De-Xiang Xu 1,  Mingliang Fang 4,  Yichao Huang 1 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 School of Public Health, Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, Center for Big Data and Population Health of IHM and MOE Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
  • 2 Clinical Research Center, Suzhou Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Suzhou, China.
  • 3 Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, California, United States of America.
  • 4 Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
  • 5 Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, China.
  • 6 State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics, Beijing Proteome Research Center, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), Beijing Institute of Lifeomics, Beijing, China.
PMID: 41886399 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003676
Abstract

Humans are increasingly exposed to "eco-friendly" biodegradable microplastic pollution, whose usage in packaging and medical applications is growing exponentially. The bioplastic polylactic acid (PLA) has recently been demonstrated to release large quantities of oligomeric lactic acid (OLA) nanoplastics causing adverse health effects. No research has reported on intrauterine biodistribution of OLA, and how gestational exposure may impact on early development of the fetus. Here, we reveal that OLA plastics can readily breach the placental barrier and accumulate in various fetal organs in a mouse model. Gestational exposure to environmentally relevant dose of OLA impairs vasculature development, causing intrauterine growth restriction in the pups. Mechanistically, OLA causes blockage of the vascular endothelial growth factor pathway and abnormal physiological development of placenta, which is mediated by the obstruction of transcription factor GATA2 translocation into the nucleus. This study highlights the potential developmental health effect of oligomer nanoparticles released from biodegradable PLA plastic.

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