Influence of a plasma jet on the viability of Candida albicans

Abstract

A rapid growth of interest in low temperature plasma in medicine in recent years has given a rise to a number of different applications. We report a low cost kHz driven argon plasma jet with flow rate less than 0.15 L min-1suitable for treatment of small areas infected with the wide-spread yeast pathogen Candida albicans. The plasma jet has been applied for inactivation of C. albicans seeded on an agar surface as well as yeast suspensions. The effects of different treatment parameters (gas composition, distance and treatment time) have been studied on the efficiency of yeast inactivation. C. albicans viability was evaluated by XTT assay and by measuring diameters of circular transparent zones.