Cold air plasma: A potential strategy for inducing apoptosis of rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast‐like synoviocytes
Chengbiao Ding, Chao Chen, Wenchong Ouyang, Qi Liu, Lin Lin, Zhengwei Wu
Abstract
Abstract Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease of the joints characterised by synovial hyperplasia and chronic inflammation. Rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast‐like synoviocytes (RA‐FLS) cells are the dominant cell type in the hyperplastic synovial membrane, which play a key role in the pathogenesis of RA. They can invade cartilage, cause inflammation, destroy joints, and show tumour‐like anti‐apoptosis characteristics. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of cold air plasma (CAP) on RA‐FLS cells. The results showed that CAP treatment for 120 s could significantly reduce the viability of RA‐FLS cells, increase the content of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), and significantly down‐regulate the ratio of apoptosis‐related protein Bcl‐2 to Bax. In this study, a novel approach of inducing apoptosis in RA‐FLS cells using CAP was proposed, which may provide a new choice for joint targeting therapy of RA.