Electroporation of peptides into adherent cells in situ

To study the effect of protein interactions in vivo upon cellular functions,such complexes may be disrupted through the introduction of peptides corresponding to the proteins' points of contact. In this communication a simple, rapid and reproducible procedure for peptide introduction into adherent cells by electroporation is described. Cells are grown on electrically conductive, optically transparent indium-tin oxide at the time of pulse delivery. Several electrode and slide configurations, necessary to obtain non-electroporated cells adjacent to the electroporated ones as a control, are outlined. Careful control of electric field strength achieved the introduction of the peptide into essentially 100% of the cells while this treatment caused no detectable disruption of their division cycle.