Clinically derived micro- and nanoplastic uptake drives spatiotemporally confined metabolic stress revealed by bond-selective imaging.

Bond-selective SRS imaging shows that clinically derived micro- and nanoplastics trigger transient, spatially confined metabolic stress during exposure, with arachidonic acid enrichment near particle-proximal lipid droplets.

• Why it matters: Cellular toxicity from micro- and nanoplastics is often linked to long-term intracellular accumulation, but when and where damage begins inside cells is still unclear.
• What they did: Using chemical bond-selective stimulated Raman scattering microscopy with cell models that separate continuous exposure from intracellular retention, the study tracked lipid droplet changes and lipidomics-identified arachidonic acid during uptake and after extracellular removal.
• The result: Stress and lipid metabolism disruption occurred mainly during exposure, while retained particles became largely inert after removal; phospholipid coating reduced lipid droplet alterations and cytotoxicity without blocking internalization.

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