The biodistribution of polystyrene nanoparticles administered intravenously in the chicken embryo

Nanoplastics can cause severe malformation in chicken embryos. To improve our understanding of the toxicity of nanoplastics to embryos, we have studied their biodistribution in living chicken embryos. We injected the embryos in the vitelline vein at stages 18–19. We injected polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs) tagged with europium- or fluorescence. Their biodistribution was tracked using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry on tissue lysates, paraffin sections, and vibratome sections analysed by machine learning algorithms. PS-NPs were found at high levels in the heart, liver and kidneys. Furthermore, PS-NPs crossed the endocardium of the heart at sites of epithelial-mesenchymal transformation; they also crossed the liver endothelium. Finally, we detected PS-NPs in the allantoic fluid, consistent with their excretion by the kidneys. Our study shows the power of the chicken embryo model for analysing the biodistribution of nanoplastics in embryos. Such experiments are difficult or impossible in mammalian embryos. These findings are a major advance in our understanding of the biodistribution and tissue-specific accumulation of PS-NPs in developing animals.