Contact vs. noncontact cell electroporation

Cell electroporation using fields radiated or broadcast from an antenna is very attractive for both clinical and research applications. Experiments were performed to establish the basics of coupling a radiated field capacitively to a sample of cells in order to determine if electroporation can occur. Experiments have been performed using sub-nanosecond rise time pulses. Cells immobilized in agarose gel were exposed to electric fields either by direct connection with electrodes or capacitive coupling. The differences between these two cases as determined from experiment and simulations will be discussed. The addition of bleomycin to the cell suspension leads to in an increase in the percentage of cells killed due to uptake being increased as a result of pores in the cells 1. The chemotherapeutic enhancement effect of bleomycin under specified electroporation conditions was determined at various times after electroporation. In addition, the use of fluorescent dye binding to DNA allowed for estimation of immediate killing of treated cells.