Modeling transport across the electroporated membrane

Abstract

Molecular transport is central to many applications of electroporation. With few exceptions, delivering target molecules into the cytoplasm and/or the nucleus defines the very application itself. The pertinent transport phenomena are complex and involve different physical mechanisms which are strongly coupled. Moreover, there is large variability in molecular properties of the target and the protocols used in electroporation practice. Such complexity calls for development of reliable theoretical and modeling tools to assist in understanding, design, and optimization. In this chapter, a theoretical framework based on a continuum approach is presented. The model is built by combining and coupling three key elements: electrodynamics, membrane permeabilization, and species transport. A detailed description of the governing physics and equations, together with aspects of numerical implementation methods, is provided. Exemplary results are given and discussed. The current approach is capable of predicting the permeabilization status of the membrane and the contributions from various transport mechanisms with both spatial and temporal resolutions, thus corroborating experimental results in details. On the other hand, it is limited to simulate the transport of small- to moderate-sized molecules; further development is required to tackle that of macromolecules such as DNA.