A research team of CNU has been drawing attention from the academic world as it has discovered how very fine plastic pieces damage human lungs.

The research team of CNU Professor Kim Eung-sam (Department of Biotechnology and Bioengineering) proved the surface charge of nanoplastic inhaled into the lungs transforms the shape of alveolar epithelial cells and destroys cells. The research accomplishment was published in the latest issue of Nano Letters (Influence Index: 12.344), an international academic journal in the field of nano research.

According to the research, a nanoplastic surface has intrinsic electrical properties, among which positively charged nanoplastic fragments grow irregular fibrous structures in alveolar epithelial cells and induce excessive active oxygen production that kills cells. In contrast, it was found that the negatively charged nanoplastics did not have any adverse effects on the alveolar epithelial cells.

Plastics, which are representative household items, are known to cause various diseases by being decomposed into microscopic sizes of less than 100 nm (nanometers) in diameter by physical and chemical factors, released into the air, and accumulated in the lungs through the human respiratory system. Unlike previous studies, the study of Professor Kim tracked the real-time influx of ultrafine plastics with different surface charges into the cells in a state where periodic tension/relaxation stimulation was applied to alveolar cells to mimic human respiratory conditions, following which signals related to apoptosis were analyzed.

The joint research team consists of Professor Kim (co-corresponding author) and Amir Roshanzadeh (graduate student of CNU, co-first author), in addition to Lee Seong-soo (co-corresponding author) and Park Sang-woo (co-first author) of the Gwangju Center of the Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI). This research was conducted with research projects of the Basic Lab Support Project and Personal Basic Science and Engineering Support Project of the National Research Foundation of Korea, which are governed by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Education. It also received research funding from the Korea Basic Science Institute.