Modeling cell and tissue electroporation

Large, pulsed electric fields are becoming an increasingly important tool in drug delivery, gene delivery, and apoptosis induction. Nonetheless, much remains unknown about the fundamental mechanisms by which large electric fields interact with cells and tissue, in part because many critical features of the cell and tissue responses occur on time and length scales that are difficult to assess experimentally. Therefore, sophisticated models are needed to further understanding of the basic mechanisms of interaction. Electroporation, in which transient, aqueous pores form in lipid bilayers, is one fundamental mechanism by which large electric fields may alter biological systems. Here cell and tissue electroporation models are presented that are based on the asymptotic model of electroporation and the new mesh transport network method (MTNM), which utilizes equivalent circuit networks to simulate nonlinear, coupled transport phenomena. The cell system simulations show that small magnitude (0.1 MV/m), long duration (100 [mu]s) pulses result in conventional electroporation, in which pores form in only the plasma membrane, while large magnitude (10 MV/m), short duration (10 ns) pulses result in supra-electroporation, in which pores form in the plasma membrane and organelle membranes.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Smith, Kyle Christopher

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• James C. Weaver.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35301

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35301