ABSTRACT The anticancer activity of plasma‐activated solution primarily depends on liquid‐phase reactive species, influenced by plasma working gas and liquid medium. However, existing studies rarely explore their synergistic interactions. Therefore, we prepared plasma‐activated phosphate‐buffered saline (PA‐PBS) using argon, oxygen, and air plasma jets to investigate gas‐liquid joint regulation of oxygen‐, nitrogen‐, and chlorine‐based reactive species formation, and compared the anticancer activities of different PA‐PBS preparations. Results showed all PA‐PBS significantly suppressed MDA‐MB‐231 cells proliferation and induced apoptosis. Argon PA‐PBS exerted anticancer activity primarily through H 2 O 2 , which also dominated during brief activation in oxygen and air PA‐PBS. However, with prolonged activation, accumulated RCS in oxygen PA‐PBS triggered apoptosis, while in air PA‐PBS, NO 2 ‐ reacted with HClO to form NO 2 Cl, amplifying cell death.
Zhang et al. (Sun,) studied this question.