An E-learning Application on Cell and Tissue Eletroporation

Abstract

Electroporation is an electrical increase in cell membrane permeability by means of local delivery of short and sufficiently intense voltage pulses to the target cells or tissues for biomedical and biotechnological pur- poses. Electroporation is used as an effective technique for delivery of variety of therapeutic agents such as chemo- therapeutic drugs, DNA or other molecules, which in nor- mal conditions do not cross cell membrane, into many different cells either in vitro or in vivo. Electroporation is used in clinical electrochemotherapy of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors, in non-viral gene electrotransfer for gene therapy and DNA vaccination purposes, in transder- mal drug delivery and new medical applications are emerging at an increasing rate. In this paper we present a web-based e-learning application which was developed in order to collect, organize and provide the knowledge and experience about cell and tissue electroporation as well as about its medical applications. The e-learning application is based on HTML, JavaScript, ASP and Macromedia Flash technologies and integrated into an interactive e-learning environment (ECHO) developed at our institution. The E- CHO enables authentication of users, statistical analysis, network traffic measurement, support for video stream- ing, as well as the use of various types of communications among users, such as forums, e-mail correspondence and videoconferencing.