Figure 1.
Schematic of the microplasma jet setup and a sketch of the biomedical treatment; the micro-manipulated tip has a diameter of ∼1 µm.
Figure 2.
Microphotographs of (a) microplasma plume at the electrode tip; (b) single-cell-precision microplasma treatment.
Figure 3.
Current-voltage waveforms of the plasma discharge.
Figure 4.
Real-time monitoring of morphological changes at the single-cell level in HepG2 cell.
A single adherent HepG2 cell was selected and treated by the microplasma for 15(top left corner). The cells labeled by the blue full line are untreated control cells (bottom right corner).
Figure 5.
Real-time monitoring of the apoptotic membrane changes of the single HepG2 cell treated with the microplasma for 15 s. Annexin-V fluorescent staining was performed to visualize these changes.
The cell labeling is the same as in Figure 4.
Figure 6.
Real-time monitoring of nucleus changes of the single HepG2 cell after 15 s of the plasma treatment.
The cell labeling is the same as in Figure 4.
Figure 7.
Optical emission spectra of the plasma: (a) 250–500 nm and (b) 500–800 nm.
Figure 8.
Uncoated (a) and wax-coated (b) microtips used in our experiments to elucidate the effects of a plasma versus electric field effects.
Figure 9.
Morphological evolution of the membrance blebbing in 4 selected HepG2 cells treated with microtip in Figure 8(a).
Figure 10.
Same as in Figure 9 for wax-coated microtip in Figure 8(b).
Figure 11.
Plasma treatment of 4 selected normal liver cells does not noticeably affect them, even after 2 hours of observation.
Figure 12.
Morphological evolution of 3 selected HeLa cells treated with microplasmas.
Figure 13.
Annexin-V staining suggests that the 4 microplasma-treated HeLa cells show apoptotic response.
Figure 14.
Hoechst 33342 staining further confirms nucleic changes indicative of apoptosis.
The blue fluorescence from the plasma-treated cells is much stronger than from untreated cells.