Low-Voltage Irreversible Electroporation Using a Comb-Shaped Contact Electrode

Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a less invasive therapy to ablate tumor cells by delivering short intensive electric pulses more than a few kV via needle-like electrodes. For reducing the required voltage for the IRE, a durable comb-shaped miniature electrode was designed to use in contact with the lesion surface for a new method named contact IRE.

A miniature electrode was newly fabricated by a fine inkjet patterning and the subsequent etching of a copper-clad polyimide film. A train of 10-μs or 100-μs long electric pulses were applied 90 times at the interval of 1 s to a tissue phantom, and its cross section was observed to measure the necrotized area.

Cell experiments showed that the maximum ablation depth increased as a function of the applied voltage and reached 400 μm at 20 V. Furthermore, insulation of the lateral space between electrode teeth with a resin and administration of adjuvants to reduce the IRE threshold of the cell membrane did increase the ablation depth by 26% and the ablation area by 40%.

The miniature electrode developed in this study successfully necrotized cells in a tissue phantom 400 μm deep from the surface with the electric pulses of only 20 V.

The contact IRE for the surface of skin and gastrointestinal tract will ablate cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors by applying only several tens of volts.