Cell membrane electroporation modeling: A multiphysics approach

A. SOBA; G. MARSHALL; C SUAREZ; E. GOLDBERG

Norfolk (VA)

Congreso; 2nd. World Congress on Electroporation, Norfolk, USA, September 2017; 2017

International Society for Electroporation-Based Technologies and Treatments (ISEBTT)

Electroporation-based techniques are widely used at present in health, environmental and food-related areas. Nonetheless, their microscopicbiophysical basis are not yet completely understood neither explicitly formalized for predicting electric pulse - cell membrane interaction. Here we present a new multiphysics model that describes the electrochemical, mechanical and poration membrane responses of an spherical cell subjected to a train of electric pulses. The model consists on the Poisson equation for the electric field, the Nernst-Planck equation for ion transport (protons, hydroxides, sodium and chloride), the Maxwell tensor and mechanical equilibrium equation for mechanical membrane deformations and the Smoluchowski equation for membranepermeabilization. The resulting system of highly nonlinear partial differential equations was solved in two spatial dimensions and time with cylindricalcoordinates using a mixed finite elements-finite differences method, with an explicit discretization of the cell membrane. Distributed programming based onOpenMP was used for maximizing current multithreading processors usage. The new theoretical model is able to predict in an integrated approach the spacetimeevolution of the electric field distribution, the induced transmembrane potential, the quantity and size of membrane pores, the spatial distribution of ionic species concentration as well as the plasma membrane mechanical deformation in response to the electric treatment. Model predictions correlate well with experimental and analytical results available in literature.