DNA Damage in Mammalian Cells by Non‐thermal Atmospheric Pressure Microsecond Pulsed Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma is not Mediated by Ozone

Abstract

Abstract Non‐thermal dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma is now being widely developed for various clinical applications 1,2 but the mechanisms of interaction of such plasmas with mammalian cells are still not well understood. It is known that DBD plasma produces ozone and it is possible that the effects of plasma may be mediated purely by ozone. Although typically requiring much higher treatment time than the typical plasma treatment times reported here, ozonation is, in fact, widely employed to kill microorganisms in water and is also used for wound healing. It has been shown earlier that plasma treatment of mammalian cells submerged in a shallow layer of culture medium can result in dose dependent DNA damage. We wanted to understand the role of ozone in mediating the interaction of non‐thermal plasma DBD plasma with mammalian cells. Upon comparing plasma treatment of mammalian breast epithelial cells with ozone treatment we found that ozone treatment is qualitatively different from non‐thermal DBD plasma and in fact does not play a role in mediating the observed effects of plasma on mammalian cells. magnified image