A Single-Cell Electroporation Model for Quantitatively Estimating the Pore Area Ratio by High-Frequency Irreversible Electroporation

The electroporation technique utilizes pulsed electric fields to induce porous defects in the cell membrane, and the technique can be used for delivering drugs into cells and killing cancer cells. To develop an electric pulse protocol in the clinic with this technique, the key issue is to understand the evolution of pores in the cell membrane during the process of electroporation. This paper presents a study to address this issue. Specifically, a mathematical model of single-cell electroporation (SCE) was developed, which includes pore area ratio (PAR) as an indicator of the electroporation dynamics and area weight for considering the 3D nature of cells. The model was employed to simulate the electroporation of a single cell with different high-frequency irreversible electroporation (H-FIRE) protocols. The simulation result has found that the change of PAR with respect to the time duration of electroporation follows a sigmoid pattern to increase under specific protocols, which is called the cumulative effect of PAR. Subsequently, the relationship between the protocol of H-FIRE, described by a set of pulse parameters such as pulse width, pulse delay, electric field strength, and pulse burst duration, and the cumulative effect of PAR was established, which thereby allows designing the protocol to kill cells effectively. The study concluded that the proposed SCE model, along with the cumulative effect of PAR, is useful in designing H-FIRE protocols for the ablation of cancer tumors in the clinic.