Modeling of Transmembrane Potential in Realistic Multicellular Structures before Electroporation

Area of Science:

• Biophysics
• Computational Biology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Studying transmembrane potential (TMP) in cells treated with pulsed electric fields is crucial for understanding electroporation.
• Existing models often simplify cell geometries or require extensive computational resources.
• Accurate simulation of multicellular environments in silico is challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel finite element model (FEM) incorporating realistic cell morphologies for electroporation studies.
• To analyze the pre-electroporation TMP in tightly packed cells using realistic geometries.
• To compare the efficacy of different pulse parameters for inducing electroporation.

Main Methods:

• Extracting realistic cell morphologies from fluorescence microscopy images.
• Generating a piecewise continuous 2D mesh for finite element modeling.
• Simulating transmembrane potential (TMP) under different pulsed electric field parameters.

Main Results:

• High-frequency bipolar pulse trains more effectively and homogeneously raise cell TMP to the electroporation threshold compared to conventional irreversible electroporation pulses.
• The proposed method demonstrates the viability of using realistic cell geometries in FEM.
• Higher applied potentials are required for the high-frequency bipolar pulse trains.

Conclusions:

• The developed method for creating realistic cell meshes for FEM is viable.
• Multicellular effects significantly influence the TMP response of biological tissues to electric fields.
• Optimized pulse parameters, like high-frequency bipolar trains, may offer improved electroporation outcomes.