Education＆ScienceEducational Article
Microplastics in Human Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid
December 2025
Authors: Takatomo Tokito, Takashi Kido, Osamu Nagafuchi, Koichi Tomoshige, Koyomi Nakazawa, Ken'ichi Shinozuka, Shuntaro Sato, Kumiko Kido, Yasuko Noguchi, Takamune Matsumoto, Satoshi Mizoguchi, Ritsuko Murakami, Hirokazu Yura, Hiroshi Ishimoto, Takahiro Takazono, Noriho Sakamoto, Yuji Ishimatsu, Yoshimasa Tanaka, Keitaro Matsumoto, Takeshi Nagayasu, Hiroshi Mukae
Comment by Mark Lavercombe: There has been widespread media interest in the impact of microplastics in recent years and, in this study, the authors demonstrate a novel approach to determining microplastic concentration in the lung using bronchoalveolar lavage. Lavage samples from fourteen patients undergoing bronchoscopy for diffuse lung disease were examined, along with 50ml of saline injected into the bronchoscope before their procedure as a control. After Nile Red staining, the samples were examined using spectroscopy to identify the presence and type of microplastic(s) in each sample. All samples stained with Nile Red demonstrated particles suspicious for microplastic, at least 73% of those particles were confirmed as plastic using spectroscopy, and over 80% of those had a diameter smaller than 10 μm. Ongoing development of analytic techniques and further study might help to elucidate their significance.