title: Mathematical model for transport of DNA plasmids from the external medium up to the nucleus by electroporation.
abstract: We propose a mathematical model for the transport of DNA plasmids from the extracellular matrix up to the cell nucleus. The model couples two phenomena: the electroporation process, describing the cell membrane permeabilization to plasmids and the intracellular transport enhanced by the presence of microtubules. Numerical simulations of cells with arbitrary geometry, in 2D and 3D, and a network of microtubules show numerically the importance of the microtubules and the electroporation on the effectiveness of the DNA transfection, as observed by previous biological data. The paper proposes efficient numerical tools for forthcoming optimized procedures of cell transfection.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leguèbe
authors.affiliation: Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo "M. Picone", Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via dei Taurini 19, I-00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Notarangelo
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Scienze dell'Informazione e Matematica, Universita degli Studi dell'Aquila, Via Vetoio, Coppito, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Twarogowska
authors.affiliation: Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo "M. Picone", Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via dei Taurini 19, I-00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Natalini
authors.affiliation: Team MONC, INRIA Bordeaux-Sud-Ouest, Institut de Mathématiques de Bordeaux, CNRS UMR 5251 & Université de Bordeaux, 351 cours de la Libération, 33405 Talence Cedex, France. Electronic address: clair.poignard@inria.fr.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poignard
mesh_terms: D021581:Active Transport, Cell Nucleus; D004247:DNA; D018274:Electroporation; D008870:Microtubules; D008954:Models, Biological; D010957:Plasmids; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D004247:DNA
keywords: Finite difference method in irregular domains; Intracellular transport; Mathematical biology; Microtubules; Plasmids transport