Different Approaches used in Modeling of Cell Membrane Electroporation

Clair Poignard (1, 2) , Aude Silve (3) , Lars Wegner (3)

1 IMB - Institut de Mathématiques de Bordeaux
2 MONC - Modélisation Mathématique pour l'Oncologie
3 Institute for Pulsed Power and Microwave Technology [Karlsruhe]

Cell electroporation is a complex phenomenon, which consists in the emergence of defects in cell membranes subjected to electric pulses. Since the end of the 90’s biophysical models have been developed to explain and predict the conditions for cell electroporation. However the recent biological data, in particular those dealing with the influence of the repetition rate of the pulses challenge these biophysical models. In this chapter we introduce different biophysical models of electropore formation and we discuss their mathematical basis and their advantages and disadvantages. We also present the phenomenological modeling, which consists in designing the model on an empirical basis thanks to the experience. The aim of the chapter is to introduce the reader to different ways of modeling cell membrane electroporation, and to provide some possible directions to obtain a more reliable theory of electroporation in accordance with the experiments and with a justified theoretical basis.

Keywords: Cell electroporation modeling; biophysical models for pore formation; mathematical models for membrane electroporation

Domains: Analysis of PDEs [math.AP]

Clair Poignard, Aude Silve, Lars Wegner. Different Approaches used in Modeling of Cell Membrane Electroporation. [Research Report] RR-8940, Inria Bordeaux Sud-Ouest. 2016. ⟨hal-01349523v1⟩