What is Electroporation?

Electroporation is a technique that utilizes intense pulses of electricity to ‘punch’ holes in cell membranes. These holes or pores last for a few of milliseconds and are approximately 40 nm in diameter.  This size is sufficient to permit macromolecules such as genes, drugs, metabolites, antibodies or molecular probes to permeate the membrane. The typical arrangement for delivering these pulses is to manoeuvre the cell between miniature plates within the solution as demonstrated in the figure below:

A variant of electroporation is electrofusion, which causes two dissimilar cells to fuse together as a single cell, a hybrid. Non-spatially uniform electric fields are used to cause cells to adhere in a ‘pearl chain’ due to induced attractive charges. A short electric field pulse is then delivered to cause the membranes of adjacent cells to fuse. Hybridomas or cells created by fusing an immortalized cell line such as a myeloma with an antibody producing cell such as a B-cell are useful in the production of monoclonal antibodies; the basis of immunological based pharmaceuticals.

You may also read:

• The Principles of Microbial Biosensors
• The Principle of Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors for Detection of Antibody & Antigen Interactions
• The Principle of Immunoassay Biosensor