Non-thermal air plasma promotes the healing of acute skin wounds in rats

Abstract

Non-thermal plasma (NTP) has nonspecific antibacterial effects, and can be applied as an effective tool for the treatment of chronic wounds and other skin pathologies. In this study we analysed the effect of NTP on the healing of the full-thickness acute skin wound model in rats. We utilised a single jet NTP system generating atmospheric pressure air plasma, with ion volume density 5 · 1017 m−3 and gas temperature 30–35 °C. The skin wounds were exposed to three daily plasma treatments for 1 or 2 minutes and were evaluated 3, 7 and 14 days after the wounding by histological and gene expression analysis. NTP treatment significantly enhanced epithelization and wound contraction on day 7 when compared to the untreated wounds. Macrophage infiltration into the wound area was not affected by the NTP treatment. Gene expression analysis did not indicate an increased inflammatory reaction or a disruption of the wound healing process; transient enhancement of inflammatory marker upregulation was found after NTP treatment on day 7. In summary, NTP treatment had improved the healing efficacy of acute skin wounds without noticeable side effects and concomitant activation of pro-inflammatory signalling. The obtained results highlight the favourability of plasma applications for wound therapy in clinics.

Plasma Medicine: A Field of Applied Redox Biology

“…These clinical experiences confirm a very early hypothesis in plasma medicine research, that plasma effects on wound healing may be a result of a two-step activity: antiseptics on wound surface in combination with stimulation of tissue regeneration (67) in several in vivo animal experiments (69,(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80)(81)(82)(83)(84)(85)(86)(87)(88)(89)(90) and in human volunteers or patients with reasonably defined wounds (91)(92)(93). It has to be pointed out that these lastmentioned wound healing effects in vivo were demonstrated in acute wounds without any interfering microbial contamination.…”

Long-Term Risk Assessment for Medical Application of Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma

“…Treatment risk summarized by the authors should be transparently limited to corresponding parameters and preferably placed in the context of current treatment recommendations of approved devices. In contrast, various research groups were unable to demonstrate acute postinterventional side effects or malignant aspects in animal models [41][42][43][44][45]. Schmidt et al [46] presented a first long-term analysis (1 year after completion of CAP therapy) on a mouse model and described both macroscopically and histologically inconspicuous results in plasma-treated wound areas without excessive scarring or chronic inflammatory reactions.…”

Enhancement of cellular glucose uptake by reactive species: a promising approach for diabetes therapy

“…CAP sources are known to generate a cocktail of positive and negative ions, free radicals, neutrals, etc. [7][8][9][10][11] CAPs are nowadays used in different elds, such as disinfection of both living tissue and non-living surfaces (e.g., medical tools and diagnostic devices), 12 treatment of chronic wounds 13 and even killing or apoptosis of cancer cells. 14 Recent reports suggest that CAP with lower doses stimulates macrophages to release various cytokine and tumour necrosis factor-alpha, which contribute to the selective killing of a variety of cancer cells.…”