Investigation of different solutions activated by air plasma jet and their anticancer effect

Abstract

In the field of plasma biomedicine, research on a plasma-activated medium (PAM) has attracted increasing attention in recent years because of its excellent characteristics. In this study, we used an atmospheric pressure air plasma jet to treat four different solutions: de-ionized water, RPMI 1640 medium, phosphate buffered saline (PBS), and saline. In order to investigate the property differences of different PAM, we mainly analyzed the physical and chemical properties and liquid-phase active species of different PAM and evaluated the inactivation of A549 lung cancer cells. The results show that the concentrations of long-lived reactive species (H2O2, NO2−, and NO3−) in different PAM increased with increasing treatment time. Biological experiments showed that the antitumor effects were in the order of PBS > saline > RPMI 1640 medium, and the best inactivation effect of plasma-activated PBS for 12 min was 89%. Meanwhile, plasma-activated PBS effectively promoted apoptosis in A549 cells, and the highest apoptosis rate was 91.3%. Therefore, this study demonstrates the medical application of different PAM in killing cancer cells and promotes the understanding of plasma–liquid interaction.