Cellular Effects of -µs to -ns Pulsed Electric Fields: experimental observations and numerical modeling

Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF) is an innovative, non-thermal, breakthrough technology relying on electroporation (EP) of cell membranes (human, animal, plant and microbial), that is becoming increasingly popular for biomedical and industrial applications. As an example, in electroporation-based cancer treatments, PEF technology enables enhanced and selective drug permeation in cancer cells (electrochemotherapy), while in food process it represents a highly efficient alternative to conventional treatments for microbial inactivation. The use of PEF technology is still limited by the lack of complete knowledge on basic mechanisms of EP and resealing of biological membranes, and on the role played by the main electric parameters (pulse duration, repetition rate, electric field amplitude). Here, the emphasis is on the health-related applications of PEF technology. The recent research activities carried out by the Bioelectromagnetic group at CNR -IREA, in cooperation with the Dept. of Information and Electric Engineering and Applied Mathematics of the University of Salerno, are presented, which aim to investigate the interaction mechanisms between PEFs and mammalian cells.