Diseño de un protocolo óptimo para extracción de microplásticos en tejidos

Abstract

Microplastic pollution is a growing environmental concern due to its detection in both consumer products and human fluids. Due to the vast number of existing methodologies, the present work seeks to contribute to the study of MPs in animal tissue. To achieve this, I propose the design of a digestion protocol for animal soft tissues by comparing existing methodologies. For this, relevant digestion methodologies were applied and evaluated. Mussels were selected as study subjects and were sampled in a mangrove ecosystem in the Gulf of Guayaquil. As part of the laboratory process, the soft tissue of the organisms was extracted for digestion, using 20% H2O2, 4M KOH and 10M NaOH, as stated in the literature. In addition, MPs were added to some tissue samples to evaluate their weight and appearance before and after the treatments to determine the effect of each digestion process on them. A cost analysis and a qualitative performance evaluation of each reagent were carried out where factors such as digestion capacity, conservation of plastic particles, ease of visualization, among others, were evaluated. Even though no significant differences were detected in terms of the digestion and conservation capacity of the samples, KOH was selected as the most appropriate reagent through qualitative evaluation, since it did not damage the surface of the sample, it had a convenient price, and its implementation allowed a good ease of visualization.