Cold air plasma: A potential strategy for inducing apoptosis of rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes

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.