Selective treatment of pancreatic cancer cells by plasma-activated saline solutions

Zhitong Chen, Li Lin, Eda Gjika, Xiaoqian Cheng, Jerome Canady, Michael Keidar

SELF-ORGANIZATION is generally referred to as a process of spontaneous transition from a homogeneous stable state to a regular pattern in a spatially extended system [1], [2]. Self-organization is a complex and fascinating phenomena commonly observed in both natural and techno-logical contexts within diverse varieties of physics, chemistry, and biology [3], [4]. Different types of self-organization phenomena have been reported in a wide range of plasmas, such as dielectric barrier discharge [5], high-frequency discharge [6], gas flow stabilized discharge [7], [8], resistively stabilized discharge [9], and discharge with liquid electrodes [10]–[12]. The self-organization phenomena associated with the formation of electrode patterns are significantly different from these discharges, which typically occur in the anode or cathode layer [13], [14]. Self-organization pat-terns (SOPs) of plasma include square-textures, square-lattices,square/hexagonal super lattices, hollow-hexagonal, multiarmed spirals, rotating-wheels patterns, etc. [15], [16]. The formation of these patterns depends on various parameters, such as driving current, electrolyte conductivity, gap length, gas species, and so on [17]–[19]. Recently, plasma discharges with the liquid electrode have been studied refer-ring to applications ranging from water decontamination and activation [20], [21], to nanoparticle and materials synthesis [22], [23], and medicine [24]. Therefore, self-organization in plasma interacting with surfaces is interesting not only from a fundamental point of view as intrinsic and fascinating characteristics of nature, but also from practical stand-point in current and emerging technological applications [25]