Ricerc@Sapienza

Microsecond pulsed electric fields (?sPEFs) with amplitude of tens of kV/m are used to permeabilize the plasma membrane whereas nanosecond pulsed electric fields of MV/m also permeabilize cell internal structures, such as the endoplasmic reticulum. In this work, a numerical realistic model of cell and its reticulum has been realized to study the use of ?sPEFs also for the permeabilization of this internal structure

The initiation of action potentials (APs) by membrane depolarization occurs after a brief vulnerability period, during which excitation can be abolished by the reversal of the stimulus polarity. This vulnerability period is determined by the time needed for gating of voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSC). We compared nerve excitation by ultra-short uni- and bipolar stimuli to define the time frame of bipolar cancellation and of AP initiation.

The increasing interest toward biocompatible nanotechnologies in medicine, combined with electric fields stimulation, is leading to the development of electro-sensitive smart systems for drug delivery applications. To this regard, recently the use of pulsed electric fields to trigger release across phospholipid membranes of liposomes has been numerically studied, for a deeper understanding of the phenomena at the molecular scale.