Single-Cell Biophysics: Measurement, Modulation, and Modeling

Single-Cell Biophysics: Measurement, Modulation, and Modeling

Poster Abstracts

20-POS Board 10 Study of Microthermal Effects Due to Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field on a Single Realistically Shaped Neuron Agnese Denzi 1,2 , Francesca Apollonio 2 , Riccardo Di Stefano 2 , Marco Leonetti 1 , Giancarlo Ruocco 1 , Micaela Liberti 2 . 1 Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome, Italy, 2 University of Rome “La Sapienza, Rome, Italy. In the last decades, the use of short (order of nanosecond) and intense (order of MV/m) electric pulses, has become a promising tool in different applications and in particular in cancer treatment [1]. Though a macroscopic thermal effect can be experimentally excluded, if the effect of the local electric field, in particular on irregular cell [2], can produce a microthermal effect is still under discussion. Aim of this work is to numerically study the local temperature increment during a 10 nanosecond pulse with amplitude able to determine the poration of the cell membrane. In order to consider an irregularly shaped cell, a realistic model of single neuron has been considered. The parameters for the thermal model have been taken from [3] and the electrical ones from [4], considering two different external medium with high (DMEM) and low (Sucrose) conductivity. The microdosimetry model has been extracted starting from a fluorescence image using a clusterization method. The border of the neuron has been imported in a multiphysics software (COMSOL Multiphysics®) in which we have been able to couple the electric and the thermal problem. The results are reported in terms of external field necessary for poration (E poration ) and the increment of temperature (ΔT): DMEM E poration ≈0.91 MV/m and ΔT ≈0.03 K Sucrose E poration ≈9.3 MV/m and ΔT ≈0.04 K The electric field, as expected, is higher in a non conductive medium but the ΔT is very low in both the conditions. [1] M. Breton et al, Bioelectromagnetics, 2012. [2] A. Denzi et al., Journal of membrane biology, 2016. [3] R.P. Croce et al., Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on, 2010. [4] A. Denzi et al, Journal of membrane biology, 2013.

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