Effect of cold helium plasma on the catalytic activity of certain erythrocyte dehydrogenases of rat blood

Abstract

The work is aimed at clarifying the effect of cold helium plasma on the catalytic properties of lactate- and aldehyde dehydrogenase in rat blood erythrocytes. The effect was studied in 20 white Wistar rats. Upon completion of the full course of exposures (1 exposure per day for 5 days), blood samples were taken from all animals with subsequent erythrocyte isolation performed by standard differential centrifugation for assessing the activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (AlDH). When assessing LDH activity, both direct and reverse reactions were considered. Gas flow microwave ionisation was applied to the synthesis of cold plasma using a special device developed at the Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences. The plasma treatment was established to provide stimulation of LDH activity in both direct and reverse reactions. In the direct reaction, erythrocytic LDH activity in rats with plasma-treated skin almost doubled (94 %) against 48 % of activity growth in the reverse reaction. Rat blood erythrocyte AlDH tends to moderate inactivation, with catalytic properties observed to decrease by 13 %. Thus, treating the skin of healthy rats with cold helium plasma was demonstrated to stimulate the energy metabolism of blood cells, with moderate activity inhibition for AlDH presenting one of the detoxification enzymes. The nature of the observed shifts indicates their adaptability. In general, according to the obtained data, the modulation of free radical processes was confirmed to play a key role in the molecular-cellular mechanisms of the cold helium plasma action on the biological system.