Separation of electroporated and non-electroporated cells by means of dielectrophoresis

Abstract

By exposing cells to high voltage electric pulses, cells’ membrane permeability increases significantly. Phenomenon is known as electroporation and is widely used in biotechnology, biology and medicine, as a way of introducing into a cell molecules which otherwise are deprived of membrane transport mechanisms. Besides cell membrane permeability, the cells’ geometrical and electrical properties change significantly due to electroporation. These changes have a huge impact on dielectrophoretic force, which could allow us to separate the electroporated and non-electroporated cells. Usually, a test whether a cell is electroporated or not is performed by exposing cells to a dye. After such test cells are most often not useful for further use. For this reason cell separation based on dielectrophoretic force could be very useful, because cells are not destroyed or changed due to dielectrophoresis. In this study we report the results of an attempt to separate the electroporated and non-electroporated cells by means of dielectrophoresis. In several experiments we managed to separate the electroporated and non-electroporated cells suspended in a medium with conductivity 0.174 S/m by exposing them to a non-uniform electric field at a frequency of 2 MHz. Because experimental results did not match theoretical predictions entirely we presume that cell membrane permittivity decreases after electroporation for at least ten times.