Evaluation of extra- and intracellular OH radical generation, cancer cell injury, and apoptosis induced by a non-thermal atmospheric-pressure plasma jet

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the effects of a non-thermal atmospheric-pressure plasma jet inducing extracellular and intracellular OH radical generation as well as cell injury and apoptosis for the cultured human breast cancer cells. Increased OH radical generation in the extracellular culture medium (liquid phase) was observed with increased irradiation time, distance to the liquid surface, and voltage. From the voltage–response relationships for two breast cancer cell lines (invasive MDA-MB-231 cells and non-invasive MCF-7 cells) and normal breast cells (HMEC), the half-maximal effective peak-to-peak voltage (EV50) values were 16.7 ± 0.3 kV, 15.0 ± 0.4 kV and 11.2 ± 0.7 kV for MDA-MB-231, MCF-7 and HMEC cells, respectively. This indicated that there was almost no selective cancer cell injury induced by plasma jet irradiation under these conditions. Compared with control condition without a plasma jet, intracellular OH radical accumulation and apoptotic cells were observed with a plasma jet using conditions that induced injury to 50% of cells irrespective of the cancer cell line.