Estimation of the Microcirculatory Response to the Effect of Cold Helium Plasma

Abstract

Abstract—This study was aimed at estimating the microcirculatory response to local application of cold helium plasma. Experiments were performed with 20 healthy male Wistar rats, which were divided into two groups of 10 rats each. Rats of one (control) group (n = 10) were tested once for microcirculatory indices. Rats of the other (test) group (n = 10) were treated daily with cold helium plasma for 5 days. Plasma was applied to the surface of the skin on the back; the duration of the exposure was 1 min. Cold helium plasma was generated with a special device, which was designed and constructed at the Institute of Applied Physics (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia) and utilized microwave-induced ionization of gas flow. Microcirculation was tested by laser Doppler flowmetry, using an LAKK-M device (Moscow, Russia). A short course (five daily procedures) of cold helium plasma treatment moderately decreased the intensity of blood flow through small vessels. The effect was associated with nitric oxide-dependent vasodilation and optimization of the role that bypass mechanisms play in microcirculation. Cold helium plasma treatment was assumed to exert a proadaptive hemodynamic effect.