Global concerns towards potentially toxic elements (PTEs) are steadily increasing due to the significant threats that PTEs pose to human health and environmental quality. This calls for immediate, effective and efficient remediation solutions. Earthworms, the 'ecosystem engineers', can modify and improve soil health and enhance plant productivity. Recently, considerable attention has been paid to the potential of earthworms, alone or combined with other soil organisms and/or soil amendments, to remediate PTEs contaminated soils. However, the use of earthworms in the remediation of PTEs contaminated soil (i.e., vermiremediation) has not been thoroughly reviewed to date. Therefore, this review discusses and provides comprehensive insights into the suitability of earthworms as potential candidates for bioremediation of PTEs contaminated soils and mitigating environmental and human health risks. Specifically, we reviewed and discussed: i) the occurrence and abundance of earthworms in PTEs contaminated soils; ii) the influence of PTEs on earthworm communities in contaminated soils; iii) factors affecting earthworm PTEs accumulation and elimination, and iv) the dynamics and fate of PTEs in earthworm amended soils. The technical feasibility, knowledge gaps, and practical challenges have been worked out and critically discussed. Therefore, this review could provide a reference and guidance for bio-restoration of PTEs contaminated soils and shall also help developing innovative and applicable solutions for controlling PTEs bioavailability for the remediation of contaminated soils and the mitigation of the environment and human risks.

由于 PTE 对人类健康和环境质量构成重大威胁，全球对潜在有毒元素 (PTE) 的担忧正在稳步增加。这需要立即、有效和高效的补救解决方案。蚯蚓，“生态系统工程师”，可以改变和改善土壤健康，提高植物生产力。最近，蚯蚓单独或与其他土壤生物和/或土壤改良剂结合使用以修复 PTEs 污染的土壤的潜力受到了相当大的关注。然而，迄今为止，蚯蚓在 PTEs 污染土壤的修复（即蠕虫修复）中的使用尚未得到彻底审查。所以，这篇综述讨论并提供了关于蚯蚓作为生物修复 PTEs 污染土壤和减轻环境和人类健康风险的潜在候选者的适用性的全面见解。具体来说，我们回顾并讨论了：i) PTEs 污染土壤中蚯蚓的发生和丰度；ii) PTEs 对受污染土壤中蚯蚓群落的影响；iii) 影响蚯蚓 PTEs 积累和消除的因素，以及 iv) PTEs 在蚯蚓改良土壤中的动态和命运。技术可行性、知识差距和实际挑战已经制定并进行了批判性讨论。所以，