Effect of plasma needle on cultured cells

To investigate a possible application of plasma in fine surgery, we studied the effects of a small atmospheric glow discharge on living cultured cells. The plasma source used for this purpose was the 'plasma needle'. Plasma needle is a small (below 1 mm) non-thermal radio-frequency glow, operating in helium mixtures with air at ambient pressure. Plasma treatment of cultured cells resulted in detachment of the cells. Viability tests using propidium iodide staining in combination with confocal laser scanning microscopy confirmed that detached cells as well as surrounding cells remained alive. When the cells received a low dose of plasma treatment, they reattached within a few hours to the surface of the culture flask and to each other. Removal of cells with high precision, without damage to adjacent cells, promises to become a new surgical technique. For investigation of the mechanism causing this detachment we investigated the gas mixture of the plasma with Raman scattering measurements. Radicals diffusing from the plasma into a liquid were detected by means of fluorescent probe in combination with laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy.