{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,6]],"date-time":"2026-11-06T15:50:23Z","timestamp":1793980223991,"version":"4.8.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]],"date-time":"2026-02-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1770681600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Guangdong Key R&D Program","award":["2019B020210002"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2019B020210002"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["31901750"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["31901750"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Foods"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Foodborne microplastics (MPs) are suspected carriers of co-ingested food contaminants, yet their digestive fate remains poorly characterized. This study simulates the role of environmentally aged polylactic acid (PLA) MPs\u2014a common food-contact material\u2014in transporting the antibiotic tetracycline (TC) through the human gastrointestinal tract. K2S2O8-induced aging significantly increased PLA surface porosity, oxygen-containing groups, and hydrophilicity, elevating TC adsorption capacity from 0.54 to 0.95 mg\/g. While adsorption kinetics were consistent with pseudo-second-order behavior, mechanistic analysis indicates that aging promotes interactions dominated by hydrogen bonding and electrostatic forces, rather than purely physical deposition. Critically, in vitro digestion models revealed that simulated intestinal fluid significantly enhances TC release (up to 62.7% of adsorbed load) compared to gastric conditions. Sequential gastrointestinal simulation yielded a bioaccessibility of 32.6%, indicating substantial digestive mobilization of MP-bound antibiotics. These findings underscore the potential of aged PLA MPs to act as digestive-stage \u201cTrojan horses\u201d for foodborne antibiotics. Our integrated approach\u2014combining controlled aging, adsorption thermodynamics, and physiologically relevant digestion models\u2014provides a mechanistic screening framework for assessing the bioaccessibility and exposure potential of microplastic-vectored contaminants in food safety contexts.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/foods15040633","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,11]],"date-time":"2026-02-11T09:16:08Z","timestamp":1770801368000},"page":"633","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["From Foodborne Pollutant Carrier to Gastrointestinal Trojan Horse: Simulating the Bioaccessibility of Antibiotics Loaded on Aged Polylactic Acid Microplastics in Human Digestive System"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Shuliang","family":"Tan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Food Safety and Health Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, BSL-3 Laboratory (Guangdong), School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510640, China"},{"name":"Medical Institution Supervision Department, Kaiping Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Kaiping 529300, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ying","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Food Safety and Health Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, BSL-3 Laboratory (Guangdong), School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510640, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-9896-3807","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lingling","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Food Safety and Health Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, BSL-3 Laboratory (Guangdong), School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510640, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jialiang","family":"Pan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Food Safety and Health Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, BSL-3 Laboratory (Guangdong), School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510640, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenzhen","family":"Liao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Food Safety and Health Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, BSL-3 Laboratory (Guangdong), School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510640, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenxia","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaowei","family":"Pan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Food Safety and Health Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, BSL-3 Laboratory (Guangdong), School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510640, China"},{"name":"Agricultural Product Processing Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Zhanjiang 524001, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xingfen","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Food Safety and Health Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, BSL-3 Laboratory (Guangdong), School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510640, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qi","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Food Safety and Health Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, BSL-3 Laboratory (Guangdong), School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510640, China"},{"name":"South China Hospital, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518116, China"},{"name":"Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"135985","DOI":"10.1016\/j.foodchem.2023.135985","article-title":"Microplastics in food-a critical approach to definition, sample preparation, and characterization","volume":"418","author":"Trzebiatowska","year":"2023","journal-title":"Food Chem."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Di Fiore, C., Carriera, F., Russo, M.V., and Avino, P. 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