Electroporation dynamics in biological cells subjected to ultrafast electrical pulses: A numerical simulation study

A model analysis of electroporation dynamics in biological cells has been c arried out based on the Smoluchowski equation. Results of the cellular resp onse to short, electric pulses are presented, taking account of the growth and resealing dynamics of transient aqueous pores. It is shown that the app lication of large voltages alone may not be sufficient to cause irreversibl e breakdown, if the time duration is too short. Failure to cause irreversib le damage at small pulse widths could be attributed to the time inadequacy for pores to grow and expand beyond a critical threshold radius. In agreeme nt with earlier studies, it is shown that irreversible breakdown would lead to the formation of a few large pores, while a large number of smaller por es would appear in the case of reversible breakdown. Finally, a pulse width dependence of the applied voltage for irreversible breakdown has been obta ined. It is shown that in the absence of dissipation, the associated energy input necessary reduces with decreasing pulse width to a limiting value. H owever, with circuit effects taken into account, a local minima in the puls e dependent energy function is predicted, in keeping with previously publis hed experimental reports.