Microplastics contamination of the aquatic environment is considered a growing problem. The ingestion of microplastics has been documented for a variety of aquatic animals. Studies have shown the potential of microplastics to affect the bioavailability and uptake route of sorbed co-contaminants of different nature in living organisms. Persistent organic pollutants and metals have been the co-contaminants majorly investigated in this field. The combined effect of microplastics and sorbed co-contaminants in aquatic organisms still needs to be properly understood. To address this, we have subjected zebrafish to four different feeds: A) untreated feed; B) feed supplemented with microplastics (LD-PE 125–250 µm of diameter); C) feed supplemented with 2% microplastics to which a mixture of PCBs, BFRs, PFCs and methylmercury were sorbed; and D) feed supplemented with the mixture of contaminants only. After 3 weeks of exposure fish were dissected and liver, intestine, muscular tissue and brain were extracted. After visual observation, evaluation of differential gene expression of some selected biomarker genes in liver, intestine and brain were carried out. Additionally, quantification of perfluorinated compounds in liver, brain, muscular tissue and intestine of some selected samples were performed. The feed supplemented with microplastics with sorbed contaminants produced the most evident effects especially on the liver. The results indicate that microplastics alone does not produce relevant effects on zebrafish in the experimental conditions tested; on the contrary, the combined effect of microplastics and sorbed contaminants altered significantly their organs homeostasis in a greater manner than the contaminants alone.

水生环境的微塑料污染被认为是一个日益严重的问题。已经记录了多种水生动物摄入微塑料的情况。研究表明，微塑料可能会影响生物体内不同性质的吸附共污染物的生物利用度和吸收途径。持久性有机污染物和金属已成为该领域中主要研究的污染物。仍需要适当了解水生生物中微塑料和吸附的共污染物的综合作用。为了解决这个问题，我们对斑马鱼进行了四种不同的饲料处理：A）未经处理的饲料；B）补充有微塑料的饲料（直径为LD-PE 125-250 µm）；C）补充了2％微塑料的饲料，其中吸附有多氯联苯，溴化阻燃剂，全氟化碳和甲基汞的混合物；D）仅添加污染物混合物的饲料。暴露3周后，解剖鱼并提取肝脏，肠，肌肉组织和脑。肉眼观察后，评价了肝脏，肠和脑中某些选择的生物标志物基因的差异基因表达。另外，对一些选定样品的肝脏，大脑，肌肉组织和肠道中的全氟化合物进行了定量。补充有吸附有污染物的微塑料的饲料产生了最明显的影响，尤其是对肝脏。结果表明，在所测试的实验条件下，单独使用微塑料不会对斑马鱼产生相关影响。相反，