Electroporation is already an established technique in several areas of medicine, but many of its biotechnological applications have only started to emerge. We reviewed some of the most promising, first outlining the best established – the use of reversible electroporation for heritable genetic modification of microorganisms (electrotransformation), and then explored recent advances in applying electroporation for inactivation of microorganisms, extraction of biomolecules, and fast drying of biomass. Although these applications often aim to upscale to the industrial and/or clinical level, we also outlined some important chip-scale applications of electroporation. We concluded our review with a discussion of the main challenges and future perspectives.
COBISS.SI-ID: 11070548
The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of in situ monitoring of electric field distribution during in vivo electroporation of mouse tumors in order to predict reversibly electroporated tumor areas. Reversibly electroporated tumor areas were determined by means of magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT). In addition, T1-weighted images of tumors were acquired to determine entrapment of contrast agent within the reversibly electroporated area. Obtained tumor areas were also histologically analyzed by means of histopathological staining. Results showed that coverage of tumors with reversibly electroporated tumor cells obtained by MREIT and fraction of tumors with entrapped MR contrast agent were correlated and were statistically similar to fraction of tumors with entrapped fluorescent dye. Implementation of presented method in electroporation based treatments could increase efficiency of the treatment.
COBISS.SI-ID: 10729556
We focused on two physical enhancement methods for transdermal drug delivery: ultrasound and electric pulses either alone or in combination. We have shown a statistically significant enhancement of calcein delivery already after 5 minutes of low-frequency ultrasound application, or only 100 short high voltage electrical pulses between 6 electode pairs. We also experimented with combinations of the two enhancement methods hoping for synergistic effects, however, the results showed no evident drastic improvement over single method. Great emphasis has been given on the design of the experimental system and protocols, so the results and the conclusions drawn from them would have greater relevance for in vivo use and later translation into clinical practice.
COBISS.SI-ID: 11032660
Uniform electroporation of the heterogeneous structure of spinach leaf cross section is a technological challenge that we addressed in this investigation. Three dimensional models were created with cells arranged in specific tissue types, considering a leaf with its air fraction and a leaf where the air fraction was replaced by a solution of known properties using vacuum impregnation. Our aim was to investigate electroporation of the spinach leaf by developing a model which would enable us to meet the technological challenge of achieving uniform electroporation in a highly heterogeneous structure in the context of a process aimed at improving freezing stability of plant foods. Pulsed electric field treatment may be used to introduce the cryoprotectantmolecules into the cells, and hence improve the structure and properties of frozen food plants.
COBISS.SI-ID: 10818132
An important challenge in understanding the basic mechanisms and effects of electroporation are mass transport processes in treated tissue. We recently (2014) presented a mathematical model called the dual-porosity model to describe post-electroporation diffusion in biological tissue and filtration–consolidation behaviour of electroporated tissue during pressing. This paper presents the model theory in a concise way and provides a report on correspondence between experimental and simulated data with the aim of verifying the model. The presented study demonstrates capabilities of the model to accurately model experimental data and provides a comprehensive demonstration of its use in practice.
COBISS.SI-ID: 11016532