TY - JOUR
T1 - Simulations of electroporation dynamics and shape deformations in biological cells subjected to high voltage pulses
AU - Joshi, Ravindra P.
AU - Hu, Qin
AU - Schoenbach, Karl H.
AU - Beebe, Stephen J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received July 23, 2001; revised April 12, 2002. This work was supported in part by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and by Old Dominion University. R. P. Joshi, Q. Hu, and K. H. Schoenbach are with the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529-0246 USA. S. J. Beebe is with the Departments of Pediatrics and Physiology, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA 23501 USA. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2002.804177
PY - 2002/8
Y1 - 2002/8
N2 - The temporal dynamics of electroporation of cells subjected to ultrashort voltage pulses are studied based on a coupled scheme involving the Laplace, Nernst-Plank, and Smoluchowski equations. It is shown that a finite time delay exists in pore formation, and leads to a transient overshoot of the transmembrane potential Vmem beyond 1.0 V. Pore resealing is shown to consist of an initial fast process, a 10-4 second delay, followed by a much slower closing at a time constant of about 10-1 s. This establishes a time window for effective killing by a second pulse. The results are amply supported by our experimental data for E.-coli cells, and the time constant also matches experiments. An electromechanical analysis for analyzing cell shape changes is also presented. Our calculations show that at large fields, the spherical cell geometry can be significantly modified, and even ellipsoidal forms would be inappropriate to describe the deformation. Values of surface forces obtained are in very good agreement with the 1-10-nN/m range reported for membrane rupture. It is also demonstrated that, at least for the smaller electric fields, both the cellular surface area and volume change roughly in a quadratic manner with electric field. Finally, it is shown that the bending moments are generally quite small and can be neglected for a simpler analysis.
AB - The temporal dynamics of electroporation of cells subjected to ultrashort voltage pulses are studied based on a coupled scheme involving the Laplace, Nernst-Plank, and Smoluchowski equations. It is shown that a finite time delay exists in pore formation, and leads to a transient overshoot of the transmembrane potential Vmem beyond 1.0 V. Pore resealing is shown to consist of an initial fast process, a 10-4 second delay, followed by a much slower closing at a time constant of about 10-1 s. This establishes a time window for effective killing by a second pulse. The results are amply supported by our experimental data for E.-coli cells, and the time constant also matches experiments. An electromechanical analysis for analyzing cell shape changes is also presented. Our calculations show that at large fields, the spherical cell geometry can be significantly modified, and even ellipsoidal forms would be inappropriate to describe the deformation. Values of surface forces obtained are in very good agreement with the 1-10-nN/m range reported for membrane rupture. It is also demonstrated that, at least for the smaller electric fields, both the cellular surface area and volume change roughly in a quadratic manner with electric field. Finally, it is shown that the bending moments are generally quite small and can be neglected for a simpler analysis.
KW - Cell membrane
KW - Deformation
KW - High voltage
KW - Smoluchowski
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037272312&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TPS.2002.804177
DO - 10.1109/TPS.2002.804177
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0037272312
SN - 0093-3813
VL - 30
SP - 1536
EP - 1546
JO - IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
JF - IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
IS - 4 I
ER -