title: Dependence of induced transmembrane potential on cell density, arrangement, and cell position inside a cell system.
abstract: A nonuniform transmembrane potential (TMP) is induced on a cell membrane exposed to external electric field. If the induced TMP is above the threshold value, cell membrane becomes permeabilized in a reversible process called electropermeabilization. Studying electric potential distribution on the cell membrane gives us an insight into the effects of the electric field on cells and tissues. Since cells are always surrounded by other cells, we studied how their interactions influence the induced TMP. In the first part of our study, we studied dependence of potential distribution on cell arrangement and density in infinite cell suspensions where cells were organized into simple-cubic, body-centered cubic, and face-centered cubic lattice. In the second part of the study, we examined how induced TMP on a cell membrane is dependent on its position inside a three-dimensional cell cluster. Finally, the results for cells inside the cluster were compared to those in infinite lattice. We used numerical analysis for the study, specifically the finite-element method (FEM). The results for infinite cell suspensions show that the induced TMP depends on both: cell volume fraction and cell arrangement. We established from the results for finite volume cell clusters and layers, that there is no radial dependence of induced TMP for cells inside the cluster.
authors.affiliation: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Mojca
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pavlin
authors.forename: Natasa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pavselj
authors.forename: Damijan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Miklavcic
mesh_terms: D002452:Cell Count; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D048429:Cell Size; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D005110:Extracellular Space / Q000502:physiology*; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D008954:Models, Biological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013535:Suspensions
chemical_list: D013535:Suspensions