title: Electroporation of a lipid bilayer as a chemical reaction.
abstract: When a cell's transmembrane potential is increased from a physiological one to more than 370 mV, the transmembrane current increases more than hundredfold within a millisecond. This is due to the formation of conductive pores in the membrane. We construct a model in which we conceive of pore formation as a voltage sensitive chemical reaction. The model predicts the logarithm of the pore formation rate to increase proportionally to the square of the voltage. We measure currents through frog muscle cell membranes under 8 ms pulses of up to 440 mV. The experimental data appear consistent with the model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858, USA. bierm@mail.ecu.edu
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bier
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Gowrishankar
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Raphael C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002463:Cell Membrane Permeability / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D018274:Electroporation / Q000379:methods*; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects; D008954:Models, Biological; D008956:Models, Chemical; D018485:Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects; D016062:Porosity / Q000528:radiation effects; D011898:Ranidae
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers