Cholesterol Blood Purification Has an Unexpected Extra Effect: Removing PFAS and Microplastics

Surprising Discovery: Cholesterol-Lowering Blood Filtration Can Also Clear PFAS and Microplastics

According to НВ — Техно: Date: August 11, 18:30

At Dresden University of Technology, a team led by Charlotte Stenblok found that therapeutic apheresis-specifically double filtration plasmapheresis, a procedure normally used to treat high cholesterol-may also help strip PFAS and microplastics from human blood. These contaminants are increasingly detected in people's bodies, which makes the finding particularly relevant. In one experiment, average concentrations of four PFAS compounds fell by 25% after treatment. In another group, levels of five PFAS compounds dropped by 43.5% to 75.8%.

What the Results Suggest

Therapeutic apheresis or double filtration plasmapheresis was originally developed for patients whose LDL cholesterol remains high despite medication. During the study, levels of polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride decreased in some patients, but in others certain polymer levels went up, indicating that the outcomes are not uniform.

The team also detected microplastics in the rinse fluid from apheresis filters, a sign that the procedure can flush this type of contaminant out of the body. The researchers point out that PFAS are often called "forever chemicals" because they resist breakdown both in nature and in the human body, which makes studying removal strategies all the more important.

Although the results are encouraging, the scientists say the available evidence is not strong enough to treat apheresis as a reliable detoxification tool.

More extensive, controlled trials with long-term patient monitoring will be required to verify whether the approach truly works.

The findings open up fresh possibilities in medicine and environmental health. PFAS and microplastics pose serious risks to people and ecosystems, and safe ways to eliminate them are urgently needed. Refining blood-cleansing techniques could eventually play a role in addressing these pollutants, but much more research is needed to judge whether apheresis is safe and appropriate for such use.

As the understanding of environmental contaminants deepens, recent findings reveal alarming levels of microplastics in human arteries. This underscores the urgency of addressing pollution in our bodies, particularly in light of new research on blood purification methods. For a deeper insight into the implications of these discoveries, read more about how microplastics have been found in human blood vessels.