title: Polarizability of shelled particles of arbitrary shape in lossy media with an application to hematic cells.
abstract: We show that within the dipole approximation the complex polarizability of shelled particles of arbitrary shape can be written as the volume of the particle times a weighted average of the electric field in the particle, with weights determined by the differences in permittivities between the shells and the external, possibly lossy media. To calculate the electric field we use an adaptive-mesh finite-element method which is very effective in handling the irregular domains, material inhomogeneities, and complex boundary conditions usually found in biophysical applications. After extensive tests with exactly solvable models, we apply the method to four types of hematic cells: platelets, T-lymphocytes, erythrocytes, and stomatocytes. Realistic shapes of erythrocytes and stomatocytes are generated by a parametrization in terms of Jacobi elliptic functions. Our results show, for example, that if the average polarizability is the main concern, a confocal ellipsoid may be used as a model for a normal erythrocyte, but not for a stomatocyte. A comparison with experimental electrorotation data shows quantitatively the effect of an accurate geometry in the derivation of electrical cell parameters from fittings of theoretical models to the experimental data.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física Aplicada III, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Sebastián
authors.forename: Sagrario
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Muñoz
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sancho
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Alvarez
mesh_terms: D001773:Blood Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D001790:Blood Physiological Phenomena; D016764:Cell Polarity; D003116:Color; D003470:Culture Media; D004560:Electricity; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004594:Electrophysiology; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media