Differential responses of cancer cell lines to non-thermal plasma from dielectric barrier discharge

The differential responses of six cancer cell lines after treatment of non-thermal plasma from dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) were studied. Two plasma exposure methods including cell suspension exposure and media only exposure were used, and the effects were examined in six cancer cell lines including KB, MCF-7, HeLa, H460, SNU-80 and T98G from different human organs. The result indicates that both methods affected six cell lines similarly in proliferation, mitochondria activity, and apoptosis related gene expression, which implies that the cell culture media have significant role in plasma–cell interaction. H460 showed a significant reduction in cell number after plasma exposure, whereas MCF-7 showed less reduction. Mitochondria activity of all the cancer cell lines reduced following exposure and incubation times except MCF-7. The mRNA expression of Bax, the apoptosis related gene, was highly enhanced in KB, HeLa, MCF-7 and SNU-80, while none was detected in T98G. All six cancer cell lines showed unexpectedly low mRNA expression of tumor suppressor gene p53. These differential responses of six cell lines suggest that non-thermal plasma should activate different pathways in each cancer cell line. Further researches on tissue-specific responses to plasma treatment should be conducted, comparing their responses with normal tissue–cell responses.