Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE  

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Chronic nanoplastic exposure drives immune dysfunction through hematopoietic reprogramming and adaptive immune impairment


Author(s):  Chongbin HU1, 2*, Qiong ZHAO1, 2*, Yang JIANG1, Zhen SU1, Jing ZHENG1, Jingjun ZHOU1, Qiufen HE3, Dongdong FAN1, Lixin XIANG1, Hangjun ZHANG2, Wei WANG4, Jianzhong SHAO1, Ye CHEN1

Affiliation(s):  1College of Life Sciences, and Department of Genetic and Metabolic Disease, The Children's Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Children and Adolescents' Health and Diseases, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; 2College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China; 3Reproductive Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310004, China; 4Department of Environmental Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China

Corresponding email(s):  Ye CHEN, yechency@zju.edu.cn Jianzhong SHAO, shaojz@zju.edu.cn Wei WANG, ww1@zju.edu.cn

Key Words:  Nanoplastics; Immunotoxicity; Zebrafish; Single-cell RNA sequencing; Adaptive immunity suppression


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Chongbin HU1,2*, Qiong ZHAO1,2*, Yang JIANG1, Zhen SU1, Jing ZHENG1, Jingjun ZHOU1, Qiufen HE3, Dongdong FAN1, Lixin XIANG1, Hangjun ZHANG2, Wei WANG4, Jianzhong SHAO1, Ye CHEN1. Chronic nanoplastic exposure drives immune dysfunction through hematopoietic reprogramming and adaptive immune impairment[J]. Journal of Zhejiang University Science ,in press.Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering,in press.https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.D2600085

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journal="Journal of Zhejiang University Science ",
year="in press",
publisher="Zhejiang University Press & Springer",
doi="https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.D2600085"
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Abstract: 
Nanoplastics (NPs) have emerged as ubiquitous environmental contaminants, yet their long-term immunological consequences in vertebrates remain mechanistically uncharacterized. Using adult zebrafish exposed to environmentally relevant and high concentrations of polystyrene NPs (PS-NPs), we used single-cell RNA sequencing, flow cytometry, and functional immune assays to comprehensively dissect NP-induced immune dysregulation. Single-cell transcriptomic analysis revealed that while overall kidney immune cell frequencies remained stable, chronic NP exposure profoundly reprogrammed hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell differentiation trajectories toward myeloid-biased differentiation, indicating impaired lymphoid regeneration capacity. Concurrently, NPs induced global activation of infection-associated and programmed cell death pathways across immune populations despite the absence of microbial challenge, establishing a state of sterile inflammation in which NP particles function as danger-associated molecular patterns. At the cellular level, NP exposure selectively depleted regulatory T cells while expanding NK cell populations, coupled with marked suppression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and Treg-associated immunoregulatory genes, creating a dysbalanced inflammatory state. Mechanistically, antigen-presenting cells (APCs) from NP-exposed fish indicated severely impaired antigen uptake and suppressed co-stimulatory molecule expression. Consequently, T cells exhibited transcriptional exhaustion characterized by baseline downregulation of effector cytokines and complete ablation of antigen-responsive gene upregulation, resulting in severely diminished T cell proliferation following antigen stimulation in a dose-dependent manner. These multi-scale mechanistic findings establish that chronic NP exposure causes an organized immune dysfunction distinct from cytotoxic immune depletion. This study provides single-cell resolution evidence of NP-induced immunotoxicity and highlights the urgent need for environmental and health risk assessments of chronic NP contamination.

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On-line Access: 2026-06-15

Received: 2026-02-04

Revision Accepted: 2026-05-19

Crosschecked: 0000-00-00

Cited: 0

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Citations:  Bibtex RefMan EndNote GB/T7714

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