Adsorption of progesterone onto microplastics and its desorption in simulated gastric and intestinal fluids

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

surface sorption and a potentially pore-filling mechanism. The desorption was carried out in Simulated Gastric Fluid (SGF) and Simulated Intestinal Fluid (SIF), whose formulations were more complex than similar models reported so far. It has been found that the desorption was higher in SIF as compared to SGF, due to micelle formation in SIF promoting the pollutant solubilization. The sorption of pepsin onto microplastics has also been revealed, suggesting a competition between pollutants and pepsin for sorption sites and a potent reduction in pollutant solubilization. This study indicates that the ingestion of microplastics could be considered as an additional route of exposure to pollutants and therefore emphasizes pollutant bioavailability for aquatic organisms.