Investigating effects of atmospheric-pressure plasma on the process of wound healing.

Abstract

Cold atmospheric-pressure plasma jets (APPJ) have excellent applications in biomedicine. Advantages of APPJ include lack of need for vacuum systems, capability of operation for a long time, and safe to be directly touched by living tissues such as a human body. In this study, an APPJ was generated by a dielectric barrier and applied for the treatment of chemical wounds. This APPJ worked with argon and was driven by high-voltage pulses. This paper compares the spontaneous healing of wounds and a stimulated healing using daily APPJ treatment. Biological data, such as hematological, biochemical, and histological parameters, were remarked. The mortality and morbidity of the untreated samples were reported after 20 days in comparison with the plasma-treated samples, which were alive after these days. Experimental results demonstrated that an increase in the oxidative stress could result in the decreased destruction of lesions by controlling the infection growth. These results were related to the presence of reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species in the plasma volume, which were detected by optical emission spectroscopy.