Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Concepts of Electroporation Pulse Generation

Abstract

Review Electroporator is a generator of electric pulses that is used for permeabilization of cells. There are five major concepts of electroporation design. Capacitor discharge, square wave generator, and analog generator are used to generate classical electroporation pulses that are longer than microsecond and pulse forming network, and resonant charging generator that are used to generate nanosecond electroporation pulses. The choice of an electroporator design is always driven by the biotechnological or biomedical application. Electroporators can be used for introduction of small (electrochemotherapy) and large molecules (gene electrotransfer), cell fusion, insertion of proteins into cell membrane, electroporation of organelles, pasteurization, tissue ablation etc. Basic concepts and foreseeable future developments in electroporator design are presented in this article.

Equivalent Pulse Parameters for Electroporation

“…Laboratory prototype of a Cliniporator device (IGEA, Italy), a prototype of a microsecond square wave pulse generator with a fast switch [41], and a prototype of a nanosecond pulse generator [42] were used to generate rectangular electric pulses needed to electroporate the cells. Different generators had to be used because all parameters could not be generated by a single device.…”

Development of Dioctadecyldimethylammonium Bromide/Monoolein Liposomes for Gene Delivery

“…Additionally, nucleases present in the cells and in biological fluids enzymatically degrade NA, limiting their biofunctionality. Although many alternative methods have been developed to deliver NA to cells, factors such as versatility [3,4], applicability [5,6] and efficiency [7,8] have discouraged their disseminated use in gene therapy.…”

High-power bipolar multilevel pulsed electroporator

“…Electroporation has been employed in clinical applications for electrochemotherapy, tissue ablation via irreversible electroporation, or for drug delivery [10][11][12][13]. Electroporation requires the use of generators (electroporators) that provide controlled pulse shapes [14]. Utilization of the pulse generators for other applications is possible if the device provides high current (more than 50 A) and voltage (more than 0.5 kV) and compatibility with electroporation buffers that are used as the load [15].…”