During Pregnancy, Inhaled Nanoparticles Can Enter the Placenta from Lungs, Cause Low Birth Weight in Babies: Study | The Weather Channel - Articles from The Weather Channel | weather.com - The Weather Channel

Inhaling harmful nanoparticles during pregnancy can cause them to escape the lungs and enter the placenta, resulting in babies with low birth weights, according to a study.

Nanoparticles are particles between 1 and 100 nanometers wide and are found in thousands of common products such as sunscreens, pharmaceuticals and sports equipment.

The study, reported in the medical journal Placenta, showed that inhaled nanoparticles can cross the natural protective barrier that normally protects fetuses. This results in inflammation, that may affect bodily systems such as blood flow in the uterus, which could inhibit the growth of the foetus.

Scientists at Rutgers University who are researching factors that cause low-birth-weight babies discovered that they could track the movement of nanoparticles made of the metal titanium dioxide through the bodies of pregnant rats.

After the nanoparticles were inhaled into the lungs of the rodents, some of them escaped this initial barrier and flowed through the placentas, which generally filter out foreign substances to protect the foetus.

"The particles are small and really hard to find," said Phoebe Stapleton, Assistant Professor at Rutgers. "But, using some specialised techniques, we found evidence that the particles can migrate from the lung to the placenta, and possibly the fetal tissues after maternal exposure throughout pregnancy. The placenta does not act as a barrier to these particles. Nor do the lungs," she elaborated.

Despite their usefulness, nanoscale materials are poorly understood. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences further noted that very little is known about their potential effects on human health and the environment

During the experiment, scientists were surprised to find titanium dioxide in the "control" group of rats who had not been given nanoparticles to inhale. Further investigation revealed that the food given to the animals contained the compound. As a result, the researchers were able to observe the path the metal took through a rat's body.

"Now that we know that the nanoparticles migrate from the mother's lungs to the placenta and foetal tissues — we can work on answering other questions," Stapleton said.

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The above article has been published from a wire source with minimal modifications to the headline and text.