Right now there is tons of plastic surrounding you. Maybe it’s your plastic water bottle, or the plastic phone case you just bought or even the plastic bag full of chips in your pantry. Plastic is now a ubiquitous part of modern life. As a result microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) have crept their way into the digestive system, blood, lungs, and even your brain. Every week you unknowingly consume enough plastic to make a credit card;1 by the end of your life that number will reach around 45 pounds. This raises the question: what are these microplastics doing to our bodies? One vital system MNPs are attacking is the cardiovascular system, which is made up of the heart, arteries, and a complex vein system. With heart disease being the number one cause of death both globally and in the United States2 the link between MNPs and the cardiovascular system could have major consequences.
What are Micro and Nanoplastics?
Microplastics are plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size; this is roughly the diameter of a pea. Nanoplastics are even smaller at 1 micrometer or less; at this size plastic particles are microscopic, comparable to the size of small bacteria like E. Coli.3 Due to the nature of most plastics being non-biodegradable, they will continue to break into finer pieces as time continues, never truly leaving our environment.4 As plastic slowly disintegrates into sizes this small they eventually slip into our food, drinking water, and even the air we breathe by infiltrating filtering systems, and our food chain. MNP consumption and inhalation has easily become a frequent daily occurrence, making its effects on the human body a crucial topic to begin studying.
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| Figure 1: Global Plastic Production 1950-2022, adapted from wikimedia.com |
Plastic to Plaque
Once in the human body MNPs can inflict harm in numerous ways; they are small enough to move between biological barriers and accumulation in vital organs.5 MNPs can compromise many of the regulatory systems in the human body creating chronic inflammation, which destabilizes blood vessels and promotes plaque formation.6 Moreover, MNPs themselves can accumulate, forming plaque in arteries, preventing blood flow, increasing chronic inflammation, and leading to possible blood clots.
As a result the cardiovascular system experiences mass amounts of stress and the overall function of the system is less efficient and less effective. Vital organs receive insufficient amounts of oxygen rich blood under these conditions leading to reduced performance throughout the entire body. The risk of blood clots forming and blocking arteries completely rises drastically, in turn increasing the possibility of a heart attack or stroke.
In a 2025 study, human in vitro (outside of a living organism) cells showed that exposure to MNPs stimulated the production of many plaque forming genes and inflammation coordinating genes.7 Essentially, a positive feedback loop is created between MNPs, plaque buildup, and inflammation, all significantly impacting one's cardiovascular health. In addition to increased inflammation, MNPs harm the cardiovascular system through oxidative stress, cell death, and cardiac tissue injury.8,9 All of these independent issues caused by MNPs can combine to have an overall detrimental effect on the human body as shown in recent studies.
Clinical Human Tests.
To study how MNPs are affecting the cardiovascular system, human clinical tests have slowly started occurring. One notable 2024 study, led by Raffaele Marfella, examined patients suffering from carotid artery disease in a multicenter, observational study across Italy. Carotid artery disease occurs when plaque builds up in the arteries that deliver blood to your brain. Plaque was removed from these particular arteries, examined for any MNP presence, and patients were monitored for a 34 month period for incidents of heart attack, stroke, or death.
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| Figure 2: ‘Associations between the Presence of MNPs and Cardiovascular Events.’ from Marfella et al. 2024. |
While the Marfella et al study is the strongest human clinical investigation thus far, it is not the only study to use similar detection techniques to study MNPs in the human body. One study from The Journal of Hazardous Materials analyzed coronary blood (oxygen rich blood in the heart) samples from patients that have previously experienced acute myocardial infarction (a heart attack) for MNPs and inflammatory markers. Similarly to patients in the Marfella et al study, patients were closely monitored for strokes, heart attacks, or death. The results showed that polyvinyl chloride (PVC) levels were significantly higher in patients that experienced a major cardiac event than those that did not.11
Animal Trials
In addition to the results from the human clinical trials, there is also extensive animal research showing MNPs as a risk to cardiovascular health. Preclinical trials on mice have shown consistent evidence of specific phases of the cardiac cycle (specifically when blood is pumping into the aorta and arteries) experiencing time and dose dependent declines in performance when MNPs are introduced to the bloodstream.12
In another study on mice, from the University of California, specimens were exposed to environmentally realistic doses of MNPs and closely monitored. Arterial plaque buildup accelerated noticeably in the mice, specifically more in male mice than female mice.7 This raises another branch for possible human research, examining if gender plays a role in MNPs’ influence on the human body. This list of animal evidence on this issue is extensive and evergrowing. Although human clinical studies provide the most direct evidence for MNPs affecting cardiovascular health, animal trials still give valuable information about how MNPs specifically damage the cardiovascular system.
Not all plastic is built the same
The Marfella investigation was also able to pinpoint two specific kinds of plastic that were most common in the extracted plaque; polyethylene, found in 58% of the tested patients, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), found in 12% of the tested patients. Polyethylene is the most widely produced synthetic plastic, used in milk jugs, plastic wrap, outdoor furniture, shopping bags, and much more. PVC is the third most produced plastic and is mainly used for manufacturing; for example, plumbing, synthetic plastic, and electrical cable insulation.13 Knowing specific plastics that are susceptible to build up in arteries opens the doors to further research on this topic; scientists can begin to investigate what properties in these specific plastics cause them to linger in the human body.
Where do we go from here?
Investigations on this topic thus far are coming to the same result: MNPs are becoming a notable cardiovascular risk factor. However, the information gathered so far is just the tip of the iceberg for this subject. Since microplastics are still a fairly recent problem there aren’t enough long term studies to fully know how MNPs and the cardiovascular system interact with each other, so continuing research is vital to creating real long term solutions. Unlike other risk factors, like smoking or poor diet, MNPs are unavoidable, meaning currently there are no tactics to mitigate the risk. The best that can be done right now is focus on our environmental impact with plastic. First and foremost microplastics have been damaging our environment for decades, and the rate of plastic production is only increasing. Rising MNP production is steadily harming the animals and ecosystems we coexist with. By decreasing single use plastic consumption, the production of microplastics and nanoplastics will decrease as well. Using reusable and recyclable materials can now not only help save the planet, but possibly save your heart as well.
References
1. Microplastics and our health: What the science says. News Center. [accessed 2026 June 25]. https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2025/01/microplastics-in-body-polluted-tiny-plastic-fragments.html
6. Marfella R, Prattichizzo F, Barbieri M, Paolisso P, Scisciola L, Basilicata MG, Marfella LV, Pesapane A, Fenti A, La Grotta R, et al. Microplastics and Atherosclerosis: Mechanisms. Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology. 2026 [accessed 2026 June 8];66(1):369–390. https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-062124-113011. doi:10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-062124-113011
7. Lin T-A, Pan J, Nguyen M, Ma Q, Sun L, Tang S, Campen MJ, Chen H, Zhou C. Microplastic exposure elicits sex-specific atherosclerosis development in lean low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient mice. Environment International. 2025 [accessed 2026 June 8];206:109938. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0160412025006890. doi:10.1016/j.envint.2025.109938
11. Zhang Y, Gao Q, Gao Q, Xu M, Fang N, Mu L, Han X, Yu H, Zhang S, Li Y, et al. Microplastics and nanoplastics increase major adverse cardiac events in patients with myocardial infarction. Journal of Hazardous Materials. 2025 [accessed 2026 June 4];489:137624. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389425005382. doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.137624
12. Iannuzzi GL, D’Alto M, Bosso G, Montella AP, D’Oria V, Pellegrino L, Boccaforno G, Masi A, Orlando A, Franco R, et al. Microplastics, Nanoplastics and Heart Contamination: The Hidden Threat. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2025 [accessed 2026 June 11];14(21):7618. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/14/21/7618. doi:10.3390/jcm14217618
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