Assessment of Cytoplasm Conductivity by Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields

The aim of this paper is to propose a new method for the better assessment of cytoplasm conductivity, which is critical to the development of electroporation protocols as well as insight into fundamental mechanisms underlying electroporation. For this goal, we propose to use nanosecond electrical pu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on biomedical engineering 2015-06, Vol.62 (6), p.1595-1603
Main Authors: Denzi, Agnese, Liberti, Micaela, Merla, Caterina, Palego, Cristiano, Paffi, Alessandra, Ning, Yaqing, Multari, Caroline R., Cheng, Xuanhong, Apollonio, Francesca, Hwang, James C. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological cells
Biomedical measurement
biomedical transducers
Biomembranes
cell cytoplasm conductivity
Conductivity
conductivity measurement
Current measurement
Cytological Techniques - instrumentation
Cytological Techniques - methods
Cytoplasm
Cytoplasm - physiology
Electric Conductivity
Electrodes
electroporation
Electroporation - instrumentation
Equipment Design
Frequency measurement
Humans
Jurkat Cells
microdosimetry
Microfluidic Analytical Techniques - instrumentation
Models, Biological
Nanotechnology - instrumentation
Time measurement
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Summary:The aim of this paper is to propose a new method for the better assessment of cytoplasm conductivity, which is critical to the development of electroporation protocols as well as insight into fundamental mechanisms underlying electroporation. For this goal, we propose to use nanosecond electrical pulses to bypass the complication of membrane polarization and a single cell to avoid the complication of the application of the "mixing formulas." Further, by suspending the cell in a low-conductivity medium, it is possible to force most of the sensing current through the cytoplasm for a more direct assessment of its conductivity. For proof of principle, the proposed technique was successfully demonstrated on a Jurkat cell by comparing the measured and modeled currents. The cytoplasm conductivity was best assessed at 0.32 S/m and it is in line with the literature. The cytoplasm conductivity plays a key role in the understanding of the basis mechanism of the electroporation phenomenon, and in particular, a large error in the cytoplasm conductivity determination could result in a correspondingly large error in predicting electroporation. Methods for a good estimation of such parameter become fundamental.
ISSN:0018-9294
1558-2531
DOI:10.1109/TBME.2015.2399250