Plasma Cell Interactions in Dermatology (PlaCID)

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Peter Awakowicz; Dr. Volker Schulz-von der Gathen
• Subject Area: Medical Physics, Biomedical Technology
• Term: from 2012 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 225433025

• Final Report Year: 2018

Final Report Abstract

One of the main topics of the PlaCID project ("Plasma Cell Interactions in Dermatology", PAK816) was to provide the researchers of the package group with stable, well characterized, and optimized plasma sources. Hence, we investigated two different atmospheric-pressure plasma sources to evaluate their efficacy for biomedical applications, namely a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operated without gas flow but strong fields to the surface and a microscaled atmospheric pressure plasma jet (µAPPJ) with gas flow and lacking external fields. The sources were characterized regarding electrical and plasma parameters, such as power density and its correlation to electron density. We investigated their reactive species chemistry to optimize the output for plasma-medical applications. For a DBD operated in air, investigation of oxygen and ozone distributions in front of surfaces have been conducted and compared to a plasma chemical model. Ambient air inherently yields an uncertainty regarding the gas composition and, thus, in the produced reactive species. This disadvantage is not present for the second device, a µAPPJ operated in helium with a small admixture of oxygen. However, during the characterization of the µAPPJ, it was found out that reproducibility was not sufficient enough to allow reasonable plasma-medical investigations. Minimizing impurities in the plasma was found to be of major importance. First investigations of our partners at the HHU showed irregular production of nitric oxide (NO). Therefore, the development of a reproducible reference source was promoted and pushed forward due to the results gained in the PlaCID project. This reference source has been finalized and published within a European COST action (MP1101 ’Biomedical Applications of Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas’). The new reference jet also allows operation at a low flow of 0.25 slm, preventing dry-out of the skin which was identified as a major problem for biomedical experiments within the PlaCID project. The device is now shared within the groups of the Plasma2Cell cooperation at the RUB (PAK728 and PAK816) and the medical partners at HHU. The impact of plasma was analyzed by applying different biological assays in cooperation with the other project partner Havenith-Neven (RUB) and Suschek/Opländer (HHU). We have learned that the plasma sources readily modify various biological samples within the applied parameter range. Especially thiols seem to be a primary target for oxidative as well as nitrosative modifications.

Publications

• “Photons and particles emitted from cold atmospheric-pressure plasma inactivate bacteria and biomolecules independently and synergistically,” Journal of The Royal Society Interface, vol. 10, no. 89, p. 20130591, 2013
  J.-W. Lackmann, S. Schneider, E. Edengeiser, F. Jarzina, S. Brinckmann, E. Steinborn, M. Havenith, J. Benedikt, and J. E. Bandow
  
• “A dielectric barrier discharge terminally inactivates rnase a by oxidizing sulfur-containing amino acids and breaking structural disulfide bonds,” Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, vol. 48, no. 49, p. 494003, 2015
  J.-W. Lackmann, S. Baldus, E. Steinborn, E. Edengeiser, F. Kogelheide, S. Langklotz, S. Schneider, L. I. O. Leichert, J. Benedikt, P. Awakowicz, and J. E. Bandow
  
• “Atomic oxygen dynamics in an air dielectric barrier discharge: a combined diagnostic and modeling approach,” Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, vol. 48, p. 275203, 2015
  S. Baldus, D. Schröder, N. Bibinov, V. Schulz-von der Gathen, and P. Awakowicz
  
• “Gas and heat dynamics of a microscaled atmospheric pressure plasma reference jet,” Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, vol. 48, no. 44, p. 444002, 2015
  S. Kelly, J. Golda, M. M. Turner, and V. Schulz-von der Gathen
  
• “Mechanismen der Wechselwirkung einer dielektrischen Barriereentladung und biologischen Systemen,” Bochum, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Diss., 2015, 157 S.
  S. Bienholz (born Baldus)
  
• “Phase resolved analysis of the homogeneity of a diffuse dielectric barrier discharge,” Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, vol. 48, no. 37, p. 375202, 2015
  S. Baldus, F. Kogelheide, N. Bibinov, K. Stapelmann, and P. Awakowicz
  
• “Summarizing results on the performance of a selective set of atmospheric plasma jets for separation of photons and reactive particles,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., vol. 48, p. 444001, 2015
  S. Schneider, F. Jarzina, J.-W. Lackmann, J. Golda, V. Layes, V. Schulz-von der Gathen, J. E. Bandow, and J. Benedikt
  
• “The topical use of non-thermal dielectric barrier discharge (dbd): Nitric oxide related effects on human skin,” Nitric Oxide, vol. 44, pp. 52–60, 2015
  K. Heuer, M. A. Hoffmanns, E. Demir, S. Baldus, C. M. Volkmar, M. Röhle, P. C. Fuchs, P. Awakowicz, C. V. Suschek, and C. Opländer
  
• “Unraveling the interactions between cold atmospheric plasma and skin-components with vibrational microspectroscopy,” Biointerphases, vol. 10, no. 2, p. 029516, 2015
  K. Kartaschew, M. Mischo, S. Baldus, E. Bründermann, P. Awakowicz, and M. Havenith
  
• “Absolute OH and O radical densities in effluent of a He/H2 O micro-scaled atmospheric pressure plasma jet,” Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., vol. 25, no. 4, p. 045013, 2016
  J. Benedikt, D. Schröder, S. Schneider, G. Willems, A. Pajdarova, J. Vlcek, and V. Schulz-von der Gathen
  
• “Concepts and characteristics of the ’cost reference microplasma jet’,” Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, vol. 49, no. 8, p. 084003, 2016
  J. Golda, J. Held, B. Redeker, M. Konkowski, P. Beijer, A. Sobota, G. Kroesen, N. S. J. Braithwaite, S. Reuter, M. Turner, T. Gans, D. O’Connell, and V. Schulz-von der Gathen
  
• “Ftir spectroscopy of cysteine as a ready-to-use method for the investigation of plasma-induced chemical modifications of macromolecules,” Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, vol. 49, no. 8, p. 084004, 2016
  F. Kogelheide, K. Kartaschew, M. Strack, S. Baldus, N. Metzler-Nolte, M. Havenith, P. Awakowicz, K. Stapelmann, and J.-W. Lackmann
  
• “Schwingungsmikrospektroskopische Untersuchung der Wirkung einer dielektrischen Barriereentladung auf Biomoleküle der Haut und Bakterien,” Dissertation, Bochum, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 2016. 85 S.
  K. Kartaschew
  
• “Absolute ozone densities in a radio-frequency driven atmospheric pressure plasma using two-beam uv-led absorption spectroscopy and numerical simulations,” Plasma Sources Science and Technology, vol. 26, no. 11, p. 115004, 2017
  A. Wijaikhum, D. Schröder, S. Schröter, A. R. Gibson, K. Niemi, J. Friderich, A. Greb, V. Schulz-von der Gathen, D. O’Connell, and T. Gans