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Single-Cell Biophysics: Measurement, Modulation, and Modeling
Poster Abstracts
108
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.