Plastic particle and metal accumulation, distribution and speciation in intestinal cells: polyethylene terephtalate/tributyltin co-exposure

Plastics are used in a plethora of daily-life products, and among them plastic beverage bottles and food trays, which may release some particles in food during the storage. Environmental pollution with micro and nanoplastics constitute another source of human contamination, as they enter in the food chain via primary consumers and end up in human food. In this case, the ingested particles are weathered in the environment by exposure to UV light and high temperatures, and are potentially surface-polluted by environmental co-contaminants such as metals. The objective of this project is to image via nano-XRM the intracellular accumulation, distribution in human intestinal cells of polyethylene terephtalate microparticles (PET), when co-exposed with tributyltin (TBT) chosen as environmental co-contaminant; and to analyse tin speciation as TBT would be metabolized by cells, leading to toxicity. This would inform on the mechanisms of microplastics and environmental co-pollutants toxicity.