Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Concepts of Electroporation Pulse Generation

Electroporator is a generator of electric pulses that is used for permeabilization of cells. There are five major concepts of electroporation design. Capacitor discharge, square wave generator, and analog generator are used to generate classical electroporation pulses that are longer than microsecond and pulse forming network, and resonant charging generator that are used to generate nanosecond electroporation pulses. The choice of an electroporator design is always driven by the biotechnological or biomedical application. Electroporators can be used for introduction of small (electrochemotherapy) and large molecules (gene electrotransfer), cell fusion, insertion of proteins into cell membrane, electroporation of organelles, pasteurization, tissue ablation etc. Basic concepts and foreseeable future developments in electroporator design are presented in this article.