Evaluation of the toxicity of PAH mixtures and organic extract from Apulian Particulate matter by the model system " Caenorhabditis elegans"

In this preliminary work the toxic activity of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) mix standard solutions was studied using "Caenorhabditis elegans" (C. elegans) as system for biological studies. The nematode cultures were exposed for 3 days to 0.01, 0.1 and 1 ppb (ng/ml) of PAH Mix and even if no morphological alterations were observed on the C. elegans populations, the lethality was about 50% when the PAHs concentrations were equal to 0.1 and 1 ppb. Moreover, the lethality test was performed using an organic extract from a PM10 sample. When the gene expression pattern was analyzed a down regulation of the expression on all the genes considered was observed, indicating that the genotoxic effect was scattered on the entire transcription mechanism. These results indicate that "C. elegans" is an effective model for the study of PAHs toxicity; future studies will be oriented to the toxicity evaluation of extracts from PM2.5 and PM10 samples collected in Apulia cities