Electroporation dynamics for different pore lifetimes based on the standard model

TL;DR

This paper explores how considering a distribution of pore lifetimes, rather than a single lifetime, affects the understanding of electroporation dynamics, especially under high electric fields, revealing significant pore loss during pulses.

Contribution

It introduces a model accounting for a broad distribution of pore lifetimes, challenging the standard single-lifetime assumption in electroporation modeling.

Findings

Pore number decreases significantly during pulses at high fields and short lifetimes.

Distribution of pore lifetimes influences post-pulse membrane behavior.

Large electric fields cause notable pore loss during electroporation pulses.

Abstract

Standard model of electropration (EP) has long emphasized a single pore lifetime to explain post-pulse transport across cell membranes. However, pore lifetimes estimated from molecular dynamics (MD) models and and those measured from experimental data differ by several orders of magnitude. We hypothesize that a broad distribution of lifetimes may describe the post-pulse behavior. Here, we show that pore distribution, number and size of pores, show interesting behavior in different ranges of pore lifetimes. Interestingly, for large electric fields (greater than 1 kV/cm) and short pore lifetimes (approximately 100 ns), an significant loss in pore number occurs during the pulse. Given the large number of EP applications that apply such fields, this phenomenon may be crucial to post-pulse response of cell membrane to such fields.