Considering Joule heating in coupled electroporation and electrodeformation modeling of glioblastoma cells

Abstract

Cells exposed to a pulsed electric field undergo electroporation(EP) and electrodeformation(ED) under electric field stress, and a coupled model of EP and ED of glioblastoma(GBM) taking into account Joule heating is proposed. The model geometry is extracted from real cell boundaries, and the effects of Joule heating-induced temperature rise on the EP and ED processes are considered. The results show that the temperature rise will increase the cell's local conductivity, leading to a decrease in the transmembrane potential(TMP). The temperature rise also causes a decrease in the dynamic Young's modulus of the cell membrane, making the cell less resistant to deformation. In addition, GBM cells are more susceptible to EP in the middle portion of the cell and ED in the three tentacle portions under pulsed electric fields, and the cells undergo significant positional shifts. The ED of the nucleus is similar to spherical cells, but the degree of ED is smaller.