Detection of Microplastics in Patients with Colorectal Adenocarcinoma using Various Techniques

Abstract Whether microplastic poses a risk to the ecosystem and human health is a matter of concern. The presence of microplastics in tumoral colon tissues (TCT, n=16) and non-tumoral colon tissues (N-TCT, n=16) of the patients diagnosed with colorectal adenocarcinoma and also in the colon tissue samples (C, n=15) collected from subjects not diagnosed with colorectal cancer were determined for the first time. The microplastics were extracted from the colon tissues of TCT, N-TCT, and C groups, and ATR-FTIR and Raman spectroscopies were used for identification. The particle size of microplastic extracted from the colon tissues of TCT, N-TCT, and C groups were in the range of 1 to 1299 µm. The number of microplastics (in 1 g colon tissue) extracted from the TCT group was found to be significantly higher than those extracted from the N-TCT (P=0.001) or C groups (P =0.002). The presence of three microplastic polymers [polyethylene (PE), Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and nylon (polyamide)] was determined in the spectra of the extracted microplastics via comparison with the spectra in KnowltAll® QC Expert software database. We might propose that there is a link between colorectal cancer and microplastic exposure level.