Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) for biomedical applications

Abstract

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is an ionized gas where the ion temperature is close to room temperature as opposed to the high temperature experienced in typical laboratory plasmas. CAP can be produced under high voltage in the presence of helium (He) and is composed of electrons, positive/negative ions, reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), radicals, excited molecules, energetic photons (UV) and transient electric fields. As a result, CAP exposure has been shown to be highly effective in a plethora of applications including: germicidal and sterilization, wound healing, blood coagulation, material surface modification and crosslinking and the treatment of various diseases, including cancer. In this study, biomedical applications of CAP were investigated in three different ways, including direct inactivation and removal of biofilms, the use of CAP as a light source for photodynamic therapy (PDT) to treat cancer as well as the adoption of CAP as a surface modification tool to promote tissue growth for tissue engineering applications.