Cold Microwave Plasma Helps Cure Non-Healing Wounds

A new study suggests that a course of cold microwave argon plasma treatments can increase the proliferation of human fibroblasts and keratinocytes.

Researchers at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT; Dolgoprudny, Russia), the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences (JIHT RAS; Moscow, Russia), and other institutions conducted a study in order to assess how plasma treatment application patterns--the interval between applications and the total number of applications--affected wound healing. The researchers studied two types of cells - fibroblasts (connective tissue cells) and keratinocytes (epithelial cells), which play a central role in wound healing.

They found that in fibroblasts, the number of cells increased by 42.6 % after one application, and by 32 % after two applications spaced 48 hours apart, as compared to untreated controls. While no signs of DNA breaks were detected following plasma application, an accumulation of cells in the active phases of the cell cycle was observed, alongside a prolonged growth phase. The proliferation of cells treated daily, on the other hand, was reduced by 29.1 %, relative to controls. Keratinocytes did not show noticeable changes in proliferation.

The researchers also performed an assay of senescence-associated β-galactosidase, which is measured at pH 6.0; the concentration of this enzyme in a cell increases with age. Plasma treatment significantly reduced the content of this substance in the samples. According to the researchers, this effect, together with the prolonged exponential growth phase, suggests that cold plasma causes a functional activation of cells, in essence their rejuvenation. The study was published on July 4, 2016, in the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics.

“The positive response to plasma treatment that we observed could be linked to the activation of a natural destructive mechanism called autophagy, which removes damaged organelles from the cell and reactivates cellular metabolic processes,” said study co-author Elena Petersen, PhD, head of the cellular and molecular technologies lab at MIPT.

Heating a gas or using a strong electromagnetic field applied with a laser or microwave generator may ionize its molecules or atoms--reducing or increasing the number of electrons in them--thus turning it into plasma, one of the four fundamental states of matter, the others being solid, liquid, and gas. Plasma contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions, accompanied by dissociation of molecular bonds. Cold plasma acts through the combination of a therapeutically relevant electrical field, low irradiation in the beneficial ultraviolet (UV) UV-A and UV-B wave length range, and activated gas particles from ambient air. The result is a deep-stimulation of the treated skin and wound surfaces.

Related Links:
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences