Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Simulations Of Transient Membrane Behavior In Cells Subjected To A High-Intensity Ultrashort Electric Pulse, Q. Hu, S. Viswanadham, R. P. Joshi, Karl H. Schoenbach, Stephen J. Beebe, P. F. Blackmore

Bioelectrics Publications

A molecular dynamics (MD) scheme is combined with a distributed circuit model for a self-consistent analysis of the transient membrane response for cells subjected to an ultrashort (nanosecond) high-intensity (approximately 0.01-V/nm spatially averaged field) voltage pulse. The dynamical, stochastic, many-body aspects are treated at the molecular level by resorting to a course-grained representation of the membrane lipid molecules. Coupling the Smoluchowski equation to the distributed electrical model for current flow provides the time-dependent transmembrane fields for the MD simulations. A good match between the simulation results and available experimental data is obtained. Predictions include pore formation times of about 5-6 …