A team led by Professor Deng Hongbing at Wuhan University’s School of Resources and Environmental Sciences has made significant progress in microplastic removal from the human body.

Their latest study, Dynamic Biomass Micro–Nanofiber Framework for Entrapment and Clearance of Gastrointestinal Microplastics, has been published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

The team has harnessed the unique scales and environmental responsiveness of biomass molecules to develop a dynamic, all-biomass micro-nanofiber network framework.

They achieved this by exfoliating chitosan into nanofiber sheets and assembling them with alginate microfibers, enabling effective entrapment and removal of microplastics from the gastrointestinal tract.

This ingestible framework adapts to pH changes in the gastrointestinal tract: in the acidic environment of the stomach, protonated chitosan nanonetworks electrostatically capture microplastics. Once in the intestines, the alginate microfibers swell, trapping microplastics within three-dimensional fiber pores.

The dynamic network demonstrated an impressive microplastic capture capacity of 816.6 mg/g in gastric fluid and 1114.5 mg/g in intestinal fluid. Even with various foods, its efficiency in capturing polystyrene microspheres remained above 47 percent compared with the no-food control group.

Animal experiments revealed that this framework could reduce colonic microplastic fluorescence by approximately 50 percent within two hours and promote fecal excretion. A 13-week intervention also restored tight junction proteins, reduced inflammatory factors, and improved gut microbiota.