The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill marked the largest environmental oil spill in human history, where it was estimated a large amount of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were released with crude oil into the environment. In this study, common PAH compounds were quantitatively determined in crude oil from the DWH spill by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC–MS). Twelve PAH compounds were identified and quantified from a 100× dilution of DWH crude oil: naphthalene (7800 ng/mL), acenaphthylene (590 ng/mL), acenaphtehen (540 ng/mL), fluorene (2550 ng/mL), phenanthrene (2910 ng/mL), anthracene (840 ng/mL), fluoranthene (490 ng/mL), pyrene (290 ng/mL), benzo(k) fluoranthene (1050 ng/mL), benzo(b)fluoranthene (1360 ng/mL), dibenz(a,h)anthracene (2560 ng/mL), and benzo(g, h, i) perylene (630 ng/mL). Toxicity assays using the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), indicated a single PAH compound naphthalene, exposure increased C. elegans germ cell apoptosis which may adversely affect progeny reproduction. The number of apoptotic germ cells significantly increased from 1.4 to 2.5 when worms were treated with 10 μg/mL of naphthalene and from 1.3 to 2.5 and 3.5 cells in presence of 1 μg/mL and 5 μg/mL of benzo(a)pyrene, respectively. Five CYP450 genes (CYP14A3, CYP35A1, CYP35A2, CYP35A5, and CYP35C1) were significantly upregulated following 500× dilution of dispersed crude oil exposure (p < 0.05). These results suggest that CYP450s may play a role in bioactivation of PAHs in crude oil, resulting in DNA damage related germ cell apoptosis.

深水地平线（DWH）漏油事件是人类历史上最大规模的环境漏油事件，估计大量多环芳烃（PAH）随原油一起释放到环境中。在本研究中，通过气相色谱-质谱法 (GC-MS) 定量测定了 DWH 泄漏原油中的常见 PAH 化合物。从 DWH 原油 100 倍稀释液中鉴定并定量了 12 种 PAH 化合物：萘 (7800 ng/mL)、苊 (590 ng/mL)、苊 (540 ng/mL)、芴 (2550 ng/mL)、菲(2910 ng/mL)、蒽 (840 ng/mL)、荧蒽 (490 ng/mL)、芘 (290 ng/mL)、苯并(k)荧蒽 (1050 ng/mL)、苯并( b )荧蒽 (1360) ng/mL)、二苯并( a , h )蒽 (2560 ng/mL) 和苯并(g, h, i) 苝 (630 ng/mL)。使用线虫秀丽隐杆线虫 ( C. elegans ) 进行的毒性测定表明，单一 PAH 化合物萘的暴露量增加了C. elegans 。线虫生殖细胞凋亡，可能对后代繁殖产生不利影响。当用 10 μg/mL 的萘处理线虫时，凋亡生殖细胞的数量从 1.4 显着增加到 2.5 个，而在 1 μg/mL 和 5 μg/mL 苯并( a )芘的存在下，凋亡的生殖细胞数量从 1.3 显着增加到 2.5 和 3.5 个。分别。分散原油暴露于 500 倍稀释后，五个 CYP450 基因（ CYP14A3 、 CYP35A1 、 CYP35A2 、 CYP35A5和CYP35C1 ）显着上调（ p < 0.05）。 这些结果表明，CYP450 可能在原油中 PAH 的生物活化中发挥作用，导致与生殖细胞凋亡相关的 DNA 损伤。