Electroporator for in vitro cell permeabilization

Abstract

The use of high voltage electric pulse technology, electroporation, in cell biology, biotechnology and medicine has attracted an enormous interest. Electroporation is a transient phenomenon that increases the permeability of cell plasma membrane. In the state of high permeability, the plasma membrane allows small and large molecules to be introduced into the cytoplasm, although the cell plasma membrane represents a considerable barrier for them in its normal state. The effectiveness of electroporation depends on many parameters that can be divided into the parameters of the electric field and the parameters that define the state of cells and their surrounding, i.e. temperature, osmotic pressure, etc. In this article, we present a prototype electroporator GT-1 for in vitro electropermeabilization that we have developed. Our electroporator offers a vast flexibility of parameters and can generate high and low voltage pulses, of which the latter ones are used for electrophoretic transfer of charged molecules through permeabilized cell plasma membrane.