Application of non-equilibrium plasmas in medicine

We review the potential of plasma medical applications, the connections to nanotechnologies and the results obtained by our group. A special issue in plasma medicine is the development of the plasma sources that would achieve non-equilibrium at atmospheric pressure in atmospheric gas mixture with no or only marginal heating of the gas, and with desired properties and mechanisms that may be controlled. Our studies have shown that control of radicals or chemically active products of the discharge such as ROS (reactive oxygen species) and/or NO may be used to control the growth of the seeds. At the same time specially designed plasma needle and other sources were shown to be efficient to sterilize not only colonies of bacteria but also planctonic samples (microorganisms protected by water) or bio films. Finally we have shown that plasma may induce differentiation of stem cells. Non-equilibrium plasmas may be used in detection of different specific markers in medicine. For example proton transfer mass spectroscopy may be employed in detection of volatile organic compounds without their dissociation and thus as a technique for instantaneous measurement of the presence of markers for numerous diseases.