A method for the detection of tire wear microplastics in zebrafish guts by laterally resolved LA-ICP-MS-based elemental fingerprinting and chemometricsBrunnbauer, Lukas (Avtor) Juračka, Šimon (Avtor) Vykypělová, Michaela (Avtor) Vrlíková, Lucie (Avtor) Eitenberger, Elisabeth (Avtor) Pořízka, Pavel (Avtor) Adamovsky, Ondrej (Avtor) Kaiser, Jozef (Avtor) Kalčíková, Gabriela (Avtor) Limbeck, Andreas (Avtor) microplasticstire wearmicroplastic detectionTire wear particles (TWPs) are generated by mechanical abrasion of tires on road surfaces and represent a significant source of microplastic pollution, contributing an estimated 30–50% of total microplastic emissions in Europe. Due to their persistence and limited biodegradability, TWPs accumulate in terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric environments. However, their detection and quantification remain challenging: carbon black hampers FTIR analysis, while pyrolysis-GC-MS yields only bulk mass data without information about particle abundance or size distribution. We present a novel approach to address this gap using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) combined with elemental fingerprinting and machine learning. We apply this method to zebrafish gut tissue to differentiate TWPs from biological tissue, paraffin-embedded material, and other naturally occurring particles. A random forest model trained on multielement signatures enables pixelwise classification of imaging data recorded with 7-μm lateral resolution despite the complexity of both TWP and biological matrices. Our results demonstrate the potential of LA-ICP-MS elemental imaging as a sensitive tool for TWP detection in biological tissue, providing new opportunities for monitoring and ecotoxicological studies.20262026-05-08 12:33:42Članek v reviji182370sl