Activation of melanogenesis by non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma

Several reports have demonstrated the wide range of nonthermal plasma applications in biomedical field including cancers, diabetics, wound healing and cosmetics. Recently, it has been shown that plasma is able to modulate the p38 MAPK and JUN level in cells which has a crucial role in melanin synthesis and skin pigmentation. Therefore we investigated the effect of plasma on melanogenesis in-vitro using melanoma (B16F10) cells and in-vivo using mouse and zebra fish. To investigate the mechanism of plasma action, plasma device characteristics were measured, reactive species inside and outside the cells were detected, and western blot was performed to find the signaling pathway involved in melanin activation in-vitro and in-vivo. This is the first report presenting the role of nonthermal plasma for melanogenesis which provides a new perspective of plasma in the field of dermatology.