Interaction of atmospheric pressure plasma jet with lung cancer cell line (A549)

Atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) is non-thermal plasma source producing plasma at room temperature and is touchable by bare hands. In recent years APPJ has been developed as an innovative approach in life science for a wide range of applications, including its role in blood coagulation, cosmetics, dental and cancer treatment. However, the molecular mechanisms of interaction of APPJ with human cells remain unclear. In this report we present preliminary results on the interaction of APPJ with human lung cancer cell line (A549). Cells were cultured in 35 mm plates and treated with plasma for various time periods (2 min, 5 min, and 10 min). Cell viability was studied using MTT assay after 24h of plasma treatment. Our analysis showed a 50% decrease in cell viability after 24h indicating the effectiveness of APPJ in killing cancer cells. Further studies are currently underway to study the effect of APPJ on the reproductive cell death by measuring colony formation ability of these cells after 14 days. (author)