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The characteristics of plasma activated medium (PAM) and its different effects on cancer and normal cells are a relevant topic of study in the field of plasma medicine. In this study, an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) with helium was applied for generating PAM, which was utilized for malignant melanoma (B16) and normal fibroblast (3T3) cell treatment. With the applied peak–peak voltages of 8, 10, and 12 kV, together with the gas flow rates of 1, 2, and 3 L/min, the characteristics of He APPJ and PAM were investigated, respectively. The results showed that compared with the free-standing jet, both the total power that was dissipated into the APPJ device and the emission intensities of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) in the gas phase increased when it interacted with the medium. There were obvious increases of H2O2 and ${\mathrm {NO}}_{2}^{-}$ in PAM with different APPJ activation time of 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, and 60 s. The gas flow rate did not yield significant differences in the concentration of species generated, the applied voltage being a more relevant parameter. Finally, the results of cell viability and cell apoptosis assay indicated that the identical dose PAM had a selective effect on two kinds of nonhomologous cells.

This paper is aimed to identify the mechanism that atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) damages malignant melanoma (B16-BL6 cells) cultured in vitro through the induction of oxidative stress. After being exposed to APPJ with different time durations, the reactive species of H 2 O 2 and NO 2 - inside cell culture medium, together with a series of biochemical parameters including the cell viability, cell morphology, DNA damage, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant capacity, are measured. The results reveal that there are obvious increases of H 2 O 2 and NO 2 - in the plasma-irradiated medium. And the cell viability, intracellular total antioxidant capability (T-AOC), and glutathione (GSH) contents decrease with the exposure to APPJ in a time-dependent manner compared with the untreated cells, i.e., 0-s group (p