An overview: Investigation of electroporation and sonoporation techniques

Electroporation is a technique in which cell membrane permeability is increased (opened) by the application of high voltage electric field. Sonoporation on the other hand is the process of applying sound, in ultrasonic frequencies to change the permeability of the cell membrane. This study focuses at reviewing the basic concepts and techniques of Electroporation and Sonoporation, as applied to molecular Biology and Medicine. Pertinent literature of the two methods was carefully studied, which revealed that both Electroporation and Sonoporation are either reversible or irreversible and can be carried out in in vivo, in ovo, in vitro or in ex vivo application. Electroporation and Sonoporation techniques were found to have simple configurations/operational procedures, and also the efficiency and cell viability after Sonoporation were found to be better than that after electroporation in some cases.