Enhanced transmembrane transport of reactive oxygen species by electroporation effect of plasma

Abstract

AbstractRecently, plasma has been proposed as a new efficient tool for various biological and medical applications. The function of plasma is mainly realized through two aspects: Electric field and reactive species. However, because the interactions between plasma and cells are quite complicated, the synergistic effect of electric field and reactive species has not been studied in depth. In this paper, the synergetic effects of electric field and transportation of reactive species on cells are investigated by a two‐dimensional finite element model. The exposure of cells to plasma results in the sufficiently high transmembrane voltage (1 V) and electroporation. When the electric field of plasma is less than 104 V/cm, the radius of nanopores generated by plasma increases with the electric field. The further increase of electric field to 105 V/cm does not cause a significant increase of nanopore radius, whereas the pore density increases by five times. The increase of discharge frequency significantly decreases the time needed to generate stable nanopores. The nanopores enhance the diffusion of H2O2 generated by plasma through the cell membrane significantly. Compared with the reality that H2O2 does not freely diffuse across cell membranes, the “generation and enhanced transportation” effect will further expand the application range of plasma medicine.