Investigation of toxicity and mutagenicity of cold atmospheric argon plasma

Abstract

Cold atmospheric argon plasma is recognized as a new contact free approach for the decrease of bacterial load on chronic wounds in patients. So far very limited data are available on its toxicity and mutagenicity on eukaryotic cells. Thus, the toxic/mutagenic potential of cold atmospheric argon plasma using the MicroPlaSter β , which has been used efficiently in humans treating chronic and acute wounds, was investigated using the XTT assay in keratinocytes and fibroblasts and the HGPRT (hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase) assay with V79 Chinese hamster cells. The tested clinical parameter of a 2 min cold atmospheric argon plasma treatment revealed no relevant toxicity on keratinocytes (viability: 76% ± 0.17%) and on fibroblasts (viability: 81.8 ± 0.10) after 72 hr as compared to the untreated controls. No mutagenicity was detected in the HGPRT assay with V79 cells even after repetitive CAP treatments of 2-10 min every 24 hr for up to 5 days. In contrast, UV-C irradiation of V79 cells, used as a positive control in the HGPRT test, led to DNA damage and mutagenic effects. Our findings indicate that cold atmospheric plasma using the MicroPlaSter β shows negligible effects on keratinocytes and fibroblasts but no mutagenic potential in the HGPRT assay, indicating a new contact free safe technology. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 58:172-177, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The beneficial effect of cold atmospheric plasma on parameters of molecules and cell function involved in wound healing in human osteoblast-like cells in vitro

“…After CAP exposition osteoblast-like In addition, one could see an increased number of cells by cell counting after CAP treatment as compared to the control group. Similar results for the XTT assay were also observed in keratinocytes and fibroblasts after 24 h of argon-generated CAP exposition; but it seems that viability of keratinocytes increases up to 72 h after CAP treatment, whereas viability of fibroblasts decreases [54]. This viability loss of fibroblasts 24 h after 60 s of nitrogen-generated CAP treatment was also confirmed by Lee et al [43].…”

Plasma Medicine: A Field of Applied Redox Biology

“…Indeed, a huge number of in vitro studies report on potential genotoxic CAP effects on isolated, naked, or cellular DNA (118). However, several investigations of potential genotoxic effects of CAP by in vitro standard procedures for mutagenicity testing of chemical substances has demonstrated no extended mutation rate of plasma treated cells (119)(120)(121)(122)(123). The main conclusion is that CAP treatment causes no enhanced genotoxic risk.…”

Actinic keratoses treated with cold atmospheric plasma

“…Five patients received four infusions of ipilimumab (3 mg/kg every 3 weeks) and one patient only three infusions (grade 3 colitis). Tumour response was assessed according to the Response evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1 5 and using the immune-related response criteria (irRC) 6 to better identify the immune response pattern. The overall response achieved was a progressive disease (using the irRC or RECIST) in four patients (66%), a stable disease in one patient (maintained for 11 months) and a dramatic response in one patient with an 89% reduction in tumour burden and a very long survival (31 months) (Fig.…”

“…3,4 Hitherto, harmful clinical effects have not been reported, and in vitro studies did not see increased genotoxicity in cultured cells after repetitive argon plasma treatment. 5,6 AK typically appears as singular lesions or field cancerization in chronically sun-exposed fair-skinned individuals with a reported prevalence of 11-26%. 7 This intraepidermal keratinocytic dysplasia may transform into invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in up to 20% within 10-25 years.…”