Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and plastic particles may not drift through the bloodstream alone. The working hypothesis is that they bind lipids and proteins, forming aggregates that persist for years. A team at Technische Universität Dresden asked whether therapeutic apheresis, an extracorporeal therapy developed to strip lipoproteins from patients with severe dyslipidemia, also removes such contaminants. In small exploratory cohorts, PFAS and micro- and nanoplastic levels decreased in patient blood after double filtration plasmapheresis, with PFAS detectable in the discarded eluate. Raman spectroscopy located plastic particles inside human skin. Responses varied across individuals and analytes, and the mechanism remains unknown.

A new study, published in Translational Exercise Biomedicine (ISSN: 2942-6812), an official partner journal of International Federation of Sports Medicine (FIMS), has found that adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) show fundamental differences in how their paraspinal muscles coordinate during trunk movement (DOI:10.1515/teb20260007).