Mechanisms of Selective Non-Thermal Plasma Effects Towards Cancer and Normal Cells

Here, we investigate the effect of CAP and PAM on the proliferation and apoptosis of carboplatin-resistant SKOV-3 and GCS normal ovarian cells. We cultured GCS cells and the carboplatin-resistant SKOV-3 cells in vitro until the exponential growth phase and then treated with the different exposure time of CAP and PAM. We performed MTT assay to determine the proliferation of ovarian cells. Besides, morphological change and apoptosis and necrosis of cells were evaluated. Our results revealed that CAP and PAM with inducing selective effect, overcome the carboplatin resistance in human ovarian cancer. we found that there was a significant difference in the response of normal and cancer cells to CAP and PAM treatments. Our results showed that normal cells are more sensitive to CAP treatment. Thus, under CAP treatment, we found a further decrease in normal cell survival respect to PAM treatment. Given that the main difference between CAP and PAM methods is in the physical factors used in CAP treatment, it is expected that normal cells have been more sensitized than cancer cells to physical factors, such as the electric field and UV radiation. It is a promising finding because PAM can cover essential drawbacks of CAP treatment. Taken together, our data suggest that physical factors along with chemical factors have important role roles in the selective induction of CAP on ovarian cells.