Traba Christian, Chen Long, Liang Jun F
Department of Chemistry, Chemical Biology, and Biomedical Engineering, Charles V. Schaefer School of Engineering and Sciences, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA.
Curr Appl Phys. 2013 Mar 20;13(Suppl 1):S12-S18. doi: 10.1016/j.cap.2012.12.024.
The antibacterial activity of gas discharge plasma has been studied for quiet some time. However, high biofilm inactivation activity of plasma was only recently reported. Studies indicate that the etching effect associated with plasmas generated represent an undesired effect, which may cause live bacteria relocation and thus contamination spreading. Meanwhile, the strong etching effects from these high power plasmas may also alter the surface chemistry and affect the biocompatibility of biomaterials. In this study, we examined the efficiency and effectiveness of low power gas discharge plasma for biofilm inactivation and removal. Among the three tested gases, oxygen, nitrogen, and argon, discharge oxygen demonstrated the best anti-biofilm activity because of its excellent ability in killing bacteria in biofilms and mild etching effects. Low power discharge oxygen completely killed and then removed the dead bacteria from attached surface but had negligible effects on the biocompatibility of materials. DNA left on the regenerated surface after removal of biofilms did not have any negative impact on tissue cell growth. On the contrary, dramatically increased growth was found for these cells seeded on regenerated surfaces. These results demonstrate the potential applications of low power discharge oxygen in biofilm treatments of biomaterials and indwelling device decontaminations.
气体放电等离子体的抗菌活性已经研究了相当长一段时间。然而，等离子体的高生物膜失活活性直到最近才被报道。研究表明，与所产生的等离子体相关的蚀刻效应是一种不良效应，它可能导致活细菌重新分布，从而造成污染扩散。同时，这些高功率等离子体产生的强烈蚀刻效应也可能改变表面化学性质，并影响生物材料的生物相容性。在本研究中，我们考察了低功率气体放电等离子体对生物膜失活和去除的效率及效果。在测试的三种气体——氧气、氮气和氩气中，放电氧气表现出最佳的抗生物膜活性，因为它在杀死生物膜中的细菌方面能力卓越，且蚀刻效应温和。低功率放电氧气能完全杀死附着表面的细菌，并随后将死菌清除，同时对材料的生物相容性影响可忽略不计。生物膜去除后留在再生表面的DNA对组织细胞生长没有任何负面影响。相反，接种在再生表面的这些细胞生长显著增加。这些结果证明了低功率放电氧气在生物材料生物膜处理和植入装置去污方面的潜在应用。
