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Effect of Cell Electroporation on the Conductivity of a Cell Suspension

Mojca Pavlin ^*, Maa Kanduer ^*, Matej Reberek ^*, Gorazd Pucihar ^*, Francis X. Hart , Ratko Magjarevi  and Damijan Miklavi ^*

^* University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Ljubljana, Slovenia; University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee; and University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Zagreb, Croatia

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to Prof. Dr. Damijan Miklavi, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Trzaska 25, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Tel.: 386-1-4768-456; Fax: 386-1-4264-658; E-mail: damijan{at}svarun.fe.uni-lj.si.

An increased permeability of a cell membrane during the application of high-voltage pulses results in increased transmembrane transport of molecules that otherwise cannot enter the cell. Increased permeability of a cell membrane is accompanied by increased membrane conductivity; thus, by measuring electric conductivity the extent of permeabilized tissue could be monitored in real time. In this article the effect of cell electroporation caused by high-voltage pulses on the conductivity of a cell suspension was studied by current-voltage measurements during and impedance measurement before and after the pulse application. At the same time the percentage of permeabilized and survived cells was determined and the extent of osmotic swelling measured. For a train of eight pulses a transient increase in conductivity of a cell suspension was obtained above permeabilization threshold in low- and high-conductive medium with complete relaxation in <1 s. Total conductivity changes and impedance measurements showed substantial changes in conductivity due to the ion efflux in low-conductive medium and colloid-osmotic swelling in both media. Our results show that by measuring electric conductivity during the pulses we can detect limit permeabilization threshold but not directly permeabilization level, whereas impedance measurements in seconds after the pulse application are not suitable.

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