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St. Gallen, Switzerland — Nanoparticles, ubiquitous in various products and the environment, have been found to disrupt embryonic development by interfering with placental function. Researchers from Empa’s Particles-Biology Interactions laboratory in St. Gallen, led by Tina Bürki, are investigating how these tiny particles penetrate the protective placental barrier and indirectly harm fetal tissue.
Understanding the Placental Barrier
Human development starts from a single egg cell, growing into a complex organism with trillions of cells. The placenta serves as a crucial barrier, protecting the developing fetus from pathogens and foreign substances. However, Bürki’s team is examining how nanoparticles, prevalent in everyday items and generated through wear, tear, and combustion processes, interact with this barrier.
“We absorb nanoparticles from food, cosmetics, and the air we breathe,” Bürki explains. These particles are suspected of causing issues such as low birth weight, autism, and respiratory diseases in unborn children. Despite the placental barrier’s role in retaining or delaying nanoparticle transport to the embryo, fetal tissue damage still occurs, even when particles are undetected in the fetus.
Investigating the Long-Range Effects
Collaborating with the Cantonal Hospital of St. Gallen, the University of Geneva, Amsterdam University Medical Center, and the Leibniz Institute for Environmental Medical Research in Düsseldorf, Bürki’s team explores how common nanoparticles like titanium dioxide and diesel soot affect placental function and embryonic development. Using human placentas from planned cesarean sections, the researchers aim to produce meaningful results due to the unique, species-specific structure and metabolism of human placental tissue.
Disrupting Messenger Substances
Initial experiments reveal that nanoparticles disrupt the production of various messenger substances in placental tissue. These altered messengers can cause significant changes in embryonic development, such as impaired blood vessel formation. Laboratory models using chicken eggs demonstrated that while untreated eggs had a dense network of blood vessels, those treated with altered messengers from nanoparticle-exposed placentas had a sparser, coarse-meshed vascular system. “Nanoparticles indirectly affect the child in the womb by inhibiting blood vessel formation through messenger substances,” Bürki notes.
Health Consequences and Future Research
The team is now investigating the full spectrum of messenger substances, known as the secretome, released by nanoparticle-treated placentas. While preliminary findings indicate that the development of the nervous system remains unaffected, the disruption in communication between the placenta and the fetus due to nanoparticles poses significant health risks. These findings underscore the need for incorporating such effects into the risk assessment of nanomaterials.
Thomas Rduch from the Women’s Clinic at the Cantonal Hospital of St. Gallen emphasizes the importance of this research: “A healthy placenta is vital for child development. Accurate risk assessments of environmental pollutants are crucial for the well-being of pregnant women and their babies.”
The study, titled “Nanoparticles Dysregulate the Human Placental Secretome with Consequences on Angiogenesis and Vascularization,” was published on May 20, 2024, in Advanced Science.
Reference: Battuja Dugershaw-Kurzer, Jonas Bossart, Marija Buljan, Yvette Hannig, Sarah Zehnder, Govind Gupta, Vera M. Kissling, Patrycja Nowak-Sliwinska, Judy R. van Beijnum, Arjan W. Griffioen, Stefan Masjosthusmann, Etta Zühr, Ellen Fritsche, René Hornung, Thomas Rduch, Tina Buerki-Thurnherr. (2024). Nanoparticles Dysregulate the Human Placental Secretome with Consequences on Angiogenesis and Vascularization. Advanced Science. DOI: 10.1002/advs.202401060
