Electroporation Study: Pulse Electric Field Effect on Breast Cancer Cell

Abstract

Electroporation has been found since the mid-1980 s but the first clinical trial was conducted at 100 μs with an amplitude of 1–1.5 kV/cm to bring bleomycin to the target region of the carcinoma cell in the 1990 s. Nowadays pulse electric field has rapidly growing with applications in medicine, food, industry and environment. Pulse electric field can be applied in variety of ways which is by the pulse width (nanosecond to millisecond) with specific intended application. Electroporation means increasing the plasma membrane permeability. There are two types of electroporation, reversible (temporary) and irreversible (permanently). These applications were widely used for the therapy of cancer and reversible electroporation was the most frequently used. In this research, a small range of pulse electric field amplitude (100–1000 V/cm, 30 μs and a single pulse) will be applied to breast cancer cell to explore the method of electroporation. Besides, this research concentrated on the efficacy of parameter reversible and irreversible electroporation to examine the anti-proliferation impact on the cancer cell. Thus, the existence of an electrical field as the stimulator for aggressive adsorption of the anti-cancer agent into the cells will lead to variables in the therapy of cancer cell. This technique will help to understand the factors in the cancer cell therapy that may lead to a new method for the drug free therapy.