Persistent effectivity of gas plasma-treated, long time-stored liquid on epithelial cell adhesion capacity and membrane morphology

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 9; no. 8; p. e104559
• Main Authors: Hoentsch, Maxi, Bussiahn, René, Rebl, Henrike, Bergemann, Claudia, Eggert, Martin, Frank, Marcus, von Woedtke, Thomas, Nebe, Barbara
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 29.08.2014; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adhesion; Animals; Antimicrobial agents; Argon; Argon - metabolism; Argon plasma; Atmospheric pressure; Bacteria; Biological effects; Biology; Biology and Life Sciences; Cell Adhesion; Cell adhesion & migration; Cell culture; Cell interactions; Cell Line; Cell Membrane - metabolism; Cell Membrane - ultrastructure; Cell Survival; Culture Media - metabolism; Cytology; Dentistry; E coli; Epithelial cells; Epithelial Cells - cytology; Epithelial Cells - metabolism; Epithelial Cells - ultrastructure; Escherichia coli; Gases; Gases - metabolism; Gram-positive bacteria; Hepatocytes - cytology; Hepatocytes - metabolism; Hepatocytes - ultrastructure; Hydrogen; Hydrogen peroxide; Hydrogen storage; Initiators; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mice; Microvilli - metabolism; Microvilli - ultrastructure; Morphology; Oxygen; Oxygen content; Physical Sciences; Physiological effects; Physiology; Plasma; Preservation, Biological - methods; Research and Analysis Methods; Tight Junctions - metabolism; Tight Junctions - ultrastructure; Time dependent analysis; Germany
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104559

Research in plasma medicine includes a major interest in understanding gas plasma-cell interactions. The immediate application of gas plasma in vitro inhibits cell attachment, vitality and cell-cell contacts via the liquid. Interestingly, in our novel experiments described here we found that the liquid-mediated plasma effect is long-lasting after storage up to seven days; i. e. the liquid preserves the characteristics once induced by the argon plasma. Therefore, the complete Dulbecco's Modified Eagle cell culture medium was argon plasma-treated (atmospheric pressure, kINPen09) for 60 s, stored for several days (1, 4 and 7 d) at 37°C and added to a confluent mouse hepatocyte epithelial cell (mHepR1) monolayer. Impaired tight junction architecture as well as shortened microvilli on the cell membrane could be observed, which was accompanied by the loss of cell adhesion capacity. Online-monitoring of vital cells revealed a reduced cell respiration. Our first time-dependent analysis of plasma-treated medium revealed that temperature, hydrogen peroxide production, pH and oxygen content can be excluded as initiators of cell physiological and morphological changes. The here observed persisting biological effects in plasma-treated liquids could open new medical applications in dentistry and orthopaedics.