Effects of pulse addition in electropermeabilization: theoretical insights on the electric conductivity

C. SUAREZ; ALEJANDRO SOBA; F. MAGLIETTI; N.OLAIZ; GUILLERMO MARSHALL

Portoroz

Congreso; 1st World Congress on Electroporation and Pulsed Electric Fields; 2015

The electrochemical treatment (ECT) of solidtumors is an electropermeabilization technique firmlyestablished and widely used. In ECT protocols, pulse intensityas well as tissue electric conductivity are of utmost importancefor assessing the final electropermeabilized area. Present ECTmathematical modeling based on the solution of the nonlinearLaplace equation for the electric field with a conductivitycoefficient depending on the electric field and the temperaturehave greatly contributed to ECT protocol optimization.However, experimental results from literature report that asuccession of pulses may increase tissue electric conductivityand the extent of tissue permeabilization, a phenomenon thatpresent models fail to describe. Here we present new insights ofa recently introduced ECT theoretical model that takes intoaccount the effect of pulse addition on tissue electricconductivity. The model describes the electric field with thenonlinear Laplace equation with a conductivity coefficientdepending on the electric field, the temperature and thequantity of pulses applied. ECT theoretical predictions showthat the rise in the electric current density during the additionof pulses is due solely to an increment in the tissue electricconductivity with no significant changes in the electric field. Apotential consequence of these results is that, under certainconditions, it would be possible to obtain largerelectropermeabilized areas with the same pulse amplitudesimply by increasing the number of pulses. The theoreticalimplications of this new model lead to a more realisticdescription of the EP phenomenon, hopefully providing moreaccurate predictions of ECT treatment outcomes.