Investigation of Low-Voltage Pulse Parameters on Electroporation and Electrical Lysis Using a Microfluidic Device With Interdigitated Electrodes

Electroporation (EP) of biological cells leads to the exchange of materials through the permeabilized cell membrane, while electrical lysis (EL) irreversibly disrupts the cell membrane. We report a microfluidic device to study these two phenomena with low-voltage excitation for lab-on-a-chip (LOC) applications. For systematic study of EP, we have employed a quantification metric: flow Index (FI) of EP. Simulation and experimental results with the microfluidic device containing interdigitated, coplanar, integrated electrodes to electroporate, and rapidly lyse biological cells are presented. H&E stained human buccal cells were subjected to various pulse magnitudes, pulsewidths, and number of pulses. Simulations show that an electric field of 25 kV/cm with a 20 V applied potential produced 1.3°C temperature rise for a 5 s of excitation. For a 20 V pulse-excitation with pulse-widths between 0.5 to 5 s, EL was observed, whereas for lower excitations, only EP was observed. FI of EP is found to be a direct function of pulse magnitudes, pulsewidths, and numbers of pulses. To release DNA from nucleus, excitation-pulses of 5 s were required. Quantification of EP would be useful for systematic study of EP toward optimization with various excitation pulses, while low-voltage requirement and high yield of EP and EL are critical to develop LOC for drug delivery and cell-sample preparation, respectively.