Cell electroporation .2. Experimental measurements of the kinetics of pore formationin human erythrocytes

Abstract

Distribution functions of cell poration times Fp(t) for human red blood cells are determined experimentally at different electric field strengths E0. The shape of the experimental distribution functions Fp(t) shows that the critical number of pores is close to unity. The initial rate of pore formation kf0, for various E0 is calculated from the Fp(t) obtained. The values of the energy barrier to pore formation ΔWf(0) and the pore radius r* corresponding to the top of this barrier are estimated from the kf0(E0) dependence obtained in this way. The values for human erythrocytes are ΔWf(0) ≈ 40kT and r* ≈ 0.34 nm. The theoretical dependences of the fraction of electroporated cells on electric field strength E0 at a fixed pulse duration calculated using the values obtained for ΔWf(0) and r* are in good agreement with the experimental results.