Lerouge S, Wertheimer M R, Marchand R, Tabrizian M, Yahia L
Research Group on Biomechanics and Biomaterials, Biomedical Engineering Institute, Ecole Polytechnique, Station Centre-Ville, P. O. Box 6079, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3A7, Canada.
J Biomed Mater Res. 2000 Jul;51(1):128-35. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4636(200007)51:1<128::aid-jbm17>3.0.co;2-#.
The aim of this work was to investigate possible mechanisms of sterilization by low-temperature gas plasma: spore destruction by plasma is compared with etching of synthetic polymers. Bacillus subtilis spores were inoculated at the bottom of glass vials and subjected to different plasma gas compositions (O(2), O(2)/Ar, O(2)/H(2), CO(2), and O(2)/CF(4)), all known to etch polymers. O(2)/CF(4) plasma exhibited much higher efficacy than all other gases or gas mixtures tested, with a more than 5 log decrease in 7.5 min, compared with a 2 log decrease with pure oxygen. Examination by scanning electron microscopy showed that spores were significantly etched after 30 min of plasma exposure, but not completely. We speculate about their etch resistance compared with that of synthetic polymers on the basis of their morphology and complex coating structure. In contrast to so-called in-house plasma, sterilization by Sterrad(R) tended to increase the observed spores' size; chemical modification (oxidation), rather than etching, is believed to be the sterilization mechanism of Sterrad(R).
将等离子体对孢子的破坏与合成聚合物的蚀刻进行比较。将枯草芽孢杆菌孢子接种在玻璃瓶底部，并使其暴露于不同的等离子体气体成分（O₂、O₂/Ar、O₂/H₂、CO₂和O₂/CF₄）中，所有这些气体都已知会蚀刻聚合物。与所有其他测试气体或气体混合物相比，O₂/CF₄等离子体表现出更高的功效，在7.5分钟内孢子数量减少超过5个对数级，而纯氧处理时孢子数量减少2个对数级。扫描电子显微镜检查表明，等离子体暴露30分钟后孢子被显著蚀刻，但未完全蚀刻。基于孢子的形态和复杂的包膜结构，我们推测了其与合成聚合物相比的抗蚀刻性。与所谓的自制等离子体不同，Sterrad®杀菌往往会使观察到的孢子尺寸增加；化学修饰（氧化）而非蚀刻被认为是Sterrad®的杀菌机制。
