P. Pawlowski et al., BIOELECTRORHEOLOGICAL MODEL OF THE CELL .5. ELECTRODESTRUCTION OF CELLULAR MEMBRANE IN ALTERNATING ELECTRIC-FIELD, Biophysical journal, 65(1), 1993, pp. 541-549
Recently proposed analysis of the extensil stress developed in a cellu
lar membrane subjected to an alternating electric field (Pawlowski, P.
, and M. Fikus, 1993. Bioelectrorheological model of the cell. 4. Anal
ysis of the extensil deformation of the membrane in an alternating ele
ctric field. Biophys. J. 65:535-540) was applied in calculations of ex
tensil stress threshold values, sigma0e[d], producing experimentally o
bserved electrodestruction of cells within the frequency range of 7 x
10(1) - 3 x 10(5) Hz. It was shown that the susceptibility (s[d] = 1/s
igma0e[d]), of the membrane to this process varies with field frequenc
y and depends on the type of cells. Electrodestruction is facilitated
in the 10(5)-Hz field. A rheological hypothesis explaining the experim
entally observed dependence of membrane stability on electric field fr
equency was proposed and successfully tested for two other phenomena:
electroporation and electrofusion.