Time domain dielectric spectroscopy study of human cells. I. Erythrocytes and ghosts

A method, allowing correction of electrode polarization effect in case of cell suspensions of small volume fraction is proposed. The dielectric behavior of human erythrocytes and erythrocyte ghosts suspensions was studied by time domain dielectric spectroscopy (TDDS) and the estimation of the dielectric constants of cell's structural parts (membrane, cytoplasm) on the basis of suitable models are presented. It was shown that in the case of small volume fraction of cells in suspension, the electrode polarization effect can be taken into account by the additional measurement of the corresponding supernatant. The optimal volume fraction of cells in suspensions in the TDDS measurements was found to be 3%-10%. The erythrocyte and erythrocyte ghost suspensions were found to demonstrate a single dispersion which can be described by the Debye equation. The membrane dielectric constant of different erythrocytes and ghosts was distributed near 5.