Deep Penetration into Tissues of Reactive Oxygen Species Generated in Floating-Electrode Dielectric Barrier Discharge (FE-DBD): An In Vitro Agarose Gel Model Mimicking an Open Wound

In this article we present an in vitro model based on agarose gel that can be used to simulate a dirty, oily, bloody, and morphologically complex surface of, for example, an open wound. We show this model's effectiveness in simulating the depth of penetration of reactive species generated in plasma (e.g., hydrogen peroxide) deep into the tissue of a rat and confirm the penetration depths using an agarose gel model. We envision that such a model could be used in the future to study plasma discharges (and other modalities) and minimize the use of live animals; plasma can be optimized on the agarose gel wound model and then finally verified using an actual wound.