Microplastics and nanoplastics in inflammatory bowel disease: Mechanistic plausibility, human evidence and future research priorities

Table 1 Human studies investigating micro- and nanoplastic burden in inflammatory bowel disease

Ref.	Publication status	Number	Population	Study design	Biospecimen	Analytical method	Main findings
Yan et al[107], 2022	Full article	52 IBD; 50 healthy controls	Adults with IBD and healthy controls	Cross sectional case-controlled study	Feces	Raman spectrometry	Fecal MNP concentration was higher in IBD than controls (41.8 items/g dry matter vs 28.0 items/g dry matter). Fecal MP burden correlated with IBD severity
Lykkemark et al[108], 2025	Abstract	4 CD; 7 non-IBD	Pregnant patients in third trimester with and without CD	Prospective pilot study	Feces	μFTIR	MNPs > 10 μm were detected in all stool samples, with counts ranging 34 particles/g to 410 particles/g dry weight. MNPs count correlated positively with fecal calprotectin, after adjusting for IBD status (Spearman r = 0.65, P = 0.04)
Wu et al[110], 2025	Full article	10 CD patients (32 tissue samples)	CD patients undergoing intestinal resection for CD complication	Cross sectional paired tissue study	Surgical specimens: Paired involved ileum, uninvolved ileum, creeping fat and mesenteric adipose	Laser infrared spectroscopy	MNPs were detected in fibrotic intestine and adjacent mesenteric adipose tissue. MNPs concentrations correlated positively with fibrosis severity, and fibrotic sites showed significantly greater accumulation than surrounding tissue. Approximately 31.96% of detected particles were 20-50 μm in size
Huang et al[109], 2026	Abstract	241 CD patients; 43 healthy controls	Adults with CD and healthy controls	Two centers, prospective; cross sectional baseline analysis with longitudinal follow up	Serum	Py-GC-MS	Serum total MNPs were higher in CD than controls (90.7 ± 33.7 μg/g vs 32.8 ± 12.5 μg/g; P < 0.001). MNPs burden associated with more severe endoscopic or MRE inflammation, and with structuring or penetrating phenotype (OR = 2.65, 95%CI: 1.41-5.11). High MNPs baseline concentration associated with disease progression (45.7% vs 25.8%) and independently increased progression risk (HR = 2.95, 95%CI: 1.57-5.57)

IBD: Inflammatory bowel disease; CD: Crohn’s disease; μFTIR: Micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; Py-GC-MS: Pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry; MNPs: Microplastics and nanoplastics; MP: Microplastics; OR: Odds ratio; CI: Confidence interval; HR: Hazard ratio.