Electroporator for in vitro cell permeabilization

Viability of a cell depends on the integrity of its plasma membrane. The plasma membrane prevents the exchange of substances between intracellular and extracellular spaces. Exposing the cell to the electric field can increase the permeability of the cell plasma membrane. The increased permeability of the plasma membrane allows small and large molecules to be introduced into the cytoplasm. This phenomenon is transient and is termed electropermeabilization and often also referred to as electroporation. The electroporation is widely used in different medical and biological applications i.e. electrochemotherapy, transdermal drug delivery and gene transfection. The effectiveness of all these applications depends on many parameters that can be divided into the parameters of the electric field and the parameters that define the state of cell and its surrounding, i.e. temperature, osmotic pressure, conductivity of cytoplasm and extracellular fluids etc. With respect to this, optimal parameters of electroporation have to be used to achieve best efficiency of the method.1 For in vitro experiments, where most commonly used electrodes are parallel plates with a 2 mm inner distance, the threshold voltages typically range from 120 V to 300 V1,2, with Radiol Oncol 2001; 35(3): 203-7.