Low‐temperature plasma, an engineered technology to generate various reactive species, is actively studied in cancer treatment in recent years, yet mainly by using a traditional 2D cell culture system. In this study, we explored the effect of the plasma‐activated medium (PAM) on lung cancer cells in vitro and in vivo by using a 3D cell culture model. The results showed that PAM markedly inhibited 3D spheroid formation and downregulated stemness‐related gene expression. We found that reactive oxygen species (ROS) penetrated throughout the whole spheroids and induced cell death surrounding and in the core of the tumor spheroid. Besides, PAM treatment suppressed migration and invasion of lung cancer cells and downregulated epithelial‐mesenchymal transition‐ (EMT‐) related gene expression. In the mouse xenograft model, the tumor volume was significantly smaller in the PAM‐treated group compared with the control group. By using transcriptome sequencing, we found that PI3K/Akt and MAPK pathways were involved in the inhibition effects of PAM on lung cancer cells. Therefore, our results indicated that PAM exhibits potential anticancer effects on lung cancer and provides insight into further exploration of PAM‐induced cell death and translational preclinical use.

The application of non-thermal bio-compatible plasma (NBP) for stem cell differentiation is promising in tissue engineering. However, the differentiation efficiency of NBP treatment on various types of human tissue-derived stem cells and the underlying mechanisms is yet understood. This study is the first time to investigate the role of NBP in inducing differentiation and its potential molecular mechanism by using human bone marrow-derived stem cells (hBMSCs) and human periodontal ligament-derived stem cells (hPDLSCs). Our results showed that NBP promote osteogenic differentiation of hPDLSCs more effectively than hBMSCs under the same treatment condition, indicating a tissue-dependent manner of NBP interacts with stem cells. Furthermore, an increase of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production of hPDLSCs and antioxidant enzymes activation was observed after NBP treatment. Particularly, mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) level was also increased and in consistent with ROS level increase. Taken together, this study revealed that with NBP induction, hPDLSCs is a more suitable stem cell source than hBMSCs for bone regeneration and tissue engineering, and ROS-induced activation of MAPKs are possibly involved in the osteogenic differentiation process.

Many studies have shown, using two‐dimensional culture, that low‐temperature plasma‐jet‐activated medium (PAM) inhibits the growth of various tumor cells, whereas its effects and mechanisms in the three‐dimensional (3D) culture system remain unclear. In this study, a 3D cell culture model was used to study the inhibition of tumorigenesis of PAM in vitro. Our results showed that PAM significantly suppressed tumor spheroid formation and downregulated stemness‐related genes of A549 cells “before,” “during,” and “after” sphere formation. Additionally, we found that the specific signature of reactive oxygen species‐induced autophagy was involved in the antiproliferation effect of PAM on A549 spheroids. Our study complemented and extended the application of PAM for its anticancer effects in lung adenocarcinoma cancer.

The column chemical leaching and bioleaching methods recovery of uranium from one uranium ore containing brannerite under the some conditons were investigated. The brannerite ore sample taken from one uranium mine in southern China, the ore particle size was crushed to -5mm, the uranium content is 0.281%. The leaching duration lasted 120 days, the acid consumption rate were 7.82% and 7.79% by ore weight, the slag uranium leaching rate were 89.32% and 91.46% that calculated by its residue has been recovered. This work has indicated that column bioleaching can enhance 2.14% uranium recovery percentage than chemical oxidation leaching, bioleaching be the promising method for uranium extraction from refractory brannerite ore in the deposit.