In vivo study on the healing of bone defect treated with non-thermal atmospheric pressure gas discharge plasma

Medical treatment using non-thermal atmospheric pressure gas discharge plasma is rapidly gaining recognition. Gas discharge plasma is thought to generate highly reactive species in an ambient atmosphere, which could be exposed to biological targets (e.g., cells and tissues). If plasma-generated reactive species could stimulate bone regeneration, gas discharge plasma could provide a new treatment opportunity in regenerative medicine. We investigated the impact of plasma on bone regeneration using a large bone defect in model rabbits and simple atmospheric pressure plasma (helium microplasma jet). We tracked the recovery progress of the large bone defects by X-ray imaging over eight weeks. The X-ray results showed a clear difference in the filling of the large bone defect among groups with different plasma treatment times, whereas filling was not substantial in the untreated control group. According to the results of micro-computed tomography analysis at eight weeks, the most successful bone regeneration was achieved using a plasma treatment time of 10 min, wherein the new bone volume was 1.51 times larger than that in the control group. Overall, these results suggest that non-thermal atmospheric pressure gas discharge plasma is promising for fracture treatment.